MADE IN CHINA
COMPASS
As with many ancient inventions, we’ll never know who figured out that, when a piece of magnetite (a naturally occurring magnetic ore) is struck by lightning, it becomes highly magnetised. The first device using one of these lodestones to indicate north–south was made during the Han dynasty, in around 200 BCE.
The original compass took the form of a ladle made from magnetite balanced on a bronze plate, which was engraved with the cardinal directions
