Magnetic Compass

Famous quotes containing the words magnetic and/or compass:

    We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    Histories of the world omitted China; if a Chinaman invented compass or movable type or gunpowder we promptly “forgot it” and named their European inventors. In short, we regarded China as a sort of different and quite inconsequential planet.
    —W.E.B. (William Edward Burghardt)