Page:On the Magnet - Gilbert (1900 translation of 1600 work).djvu/110

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WILLIAM GILBERT

CHAP. XIX.

Union with an armed Loadstone is stronger;
hence greater weights are raised; but the
coition is not stronger, but generally
weaker.

*An armed magnet raises a greater weight, as is manifest to all; but a piece of iron moves towards a stone at an equal, or rather greater, distance when it is bare, without an iron cap. This must be tried with two pieces of iron of the same weight and figure at an equal distance, or with one and the same versorium, the test being made first with an armed, then with an unarmed loadstone, at equal distances.

CHAP. XX.

*

An armed Loadstone raises an armed Loadstone,
which also attracts a third; which likewise
happens, though the virtue in the first
be somewhat small.

Magnets armed cohære firmly when duly joined, and accord into one; and though the first be rather weak, yet the second one adhæres to it not only by the strength of the first, but of the second, which mutually give helping hands; also to the second a third often adheres and in the case of robust stones, a fourth to the third.

CHAP.