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The Riddle of the Compass: The Invention that Changed the World, by Amir D. Aczel
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The story of the compass is shrouded in mystery and myth, yet most will agree it begins around the time of the birth of Christ in ancient China. A mysterious lodestone whose powers affected metal was known to the Chinese emperor. When this piece of metal was suspended in water, it always pointed north. This unexplainable occurrence led to the stone's use in feng shui, the Chinese art of finding the right location. However, it was the Italians, more than a thousand years later, who discovered the ultimate destiny of the lodestone and unleashed its formidable powers. In Amalfi sometime in the twelfth century, the compass was born, crowning the Italians as the new rulers of the seas and heralding the onset of the modern world. Retracing the roots of the compass and sharing the fascinating story of navigation through the ages, The Riddle of the Compass is Aczel at his most entertaining and insightful.
- Sales Rank: #284588 in Books
- Published on: 2002-05-02
- Released on: 2002-05-02
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 7.90" h x .51" w x 5.20" l, .45 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 208 pages
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-Prior to the invention of the compass, a merchant or sailor who wished to cross a large body of water was forced to navigate by studying the winds and stars or by never sailing out of the sight of land. Long ocean voyages were impossible and even sailing the Mediterranean could be a lengthy and hazardous voyage. The compass changed all of this. Mariners could now strike out on an azimuth and have a reasonable chance of arriving at their destination. This led to the Age of Exploration and the expansion of the European kingdoms into economic empires. Yet as important as the compass is, its origins are shrouded in mystery. The small town of Amalfi, Italy, claims to be the birthplace of the inventor of the compass, but China has an even stronger case. Aczel examines the myths, legends, and facts behind the dispute and provides a logical, although not indisputable, conclusion on which nation can claim the compass as its own. He also provides a layman's overview of the development of navigation from the earliest days to the 15th century. Although the author is primarily known for his scientific books, Riddle of the Compass contains little or no jargon and a minimum of scientific terminology. A worthwhile and interesting addition.
Robert Burnham, R. E. Lee High School, Springfield, VA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Despite its brevity, this book covers its topic completely. In this detailed history, Aczel (God's Equation; Bentley Coll.) takes us back in time to Amalfi, Italy, where between 1295 and 1302 the compass as we know it was developed. Aczel points out, however, that the actual discovery of materials that followed magnetic lines, or at least consistently pointed in a specific direction (south), is attributed to the Chinese in 1040. The story of the compass is also the story of navigation, which the author admirably combines. Debunking the myth that sailors followed the coastlines of countries until they met their desired location, the author describes how they navigated the open seas using the sun, stars, wind, and even the migration of birds. While this book is not a page-turner, it is an accurate account of the important historical events that lead to the compass's development. Tellingly, Aczel grew up on a ship and was navigating straits in the Mediterranean long before he could drive a car. Recommended for public as well as academic libraries whose readers want to go beyond the account generally given in an encyclopedia.
- James Olson, Northeastern Illinois Univ., Chicago
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Scientific American
The compass, Aczel says, was "the most important technological invention since the wheel" because its contribution to navigation "allowed goods to be transported efficiently and reliably across the seas and opened up the world to maritime exploration." Inspired by that thought, Aczel (associate professor of mathematics at Bentley College) set out to trace the history of the device. "The compass," he found, "was invented in antiquity in China, where it did not immediately improve navigation but was used in feng shui." It was the mariners of Amalfi, then a maritime city-state in Italy, who around 1300 transformed the instrument into the compass we know today. Citing it and other devices that only gradually found their technological niche, Aczel concludes that it "seems to be a law of nature that a technology is developed and then waits a long time for people to discover their need for it, rather than the other way around."
Editors of Scientific American
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Three Stars
By jjsharkbait
All the service and the book were fine. The content was a little hot and cold throughout.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
Accessible, entertaining, and edifying
By Peter D. Mark
Amir Aczel's _The Riddle of the Compass_ tells a sweeping tale spanning continents and centuries. While this tale includes some discussion of the natural history of the earth's geological composition, magnetic field, and recent research showing that certain nerve fibers in fish are sensitive to this magnetic field and may play a role in their migratory behavior, the book concentrates on the human history of navigation and how the development of the compass spurred commerce, trade, and the expansion of European naval powers.
He weaves into this tale a survey of maritime navigational techniques used in antiquity by the Greeks and Egyptians. He gives an impressively well-researched survey of the references to the compass in European writings, the earliest dating to 1187 by the English Augustinian Monk Alexander Neckam. Aczel touches on a number of unusual subjects that turn out to be connected to the compass in surprising ways: the Chinese art of feng shui, ancient Chinese divination practices, Aegean archeology, including a particular Etruscan chandelier, the travels of Marco Polo, the development of cartography and nautical charts in medieval Europe. Along the way he treats the reader to a crash course in Italian history ranging from the Roman empire, the Crusades, through the rise of the city-states Amalfi, Naples, and Venice, the navigational methods employed by the great Spanish and Portuguese explorers such as Magellan, da Gama, and Columbus, and some interesting trivia such as the real meaning and origin of the phrase "to sail the seven seas" and how a possibly misplaced comma bears on the identity of the man who at one time was thought to have invented the compass, and of whom the residents of Amalfi erected a statue as a tribute.
Like his earlier books, this one is accessible, entertaining, and edifying. The narrative has a natural flow and the stamp of Aczel's personal connection with the subject. (He spent much of his youth working on board a Mediterranean cruise ship that his father captained.) In places, footnotes would have been helpful. While there is a useful bibliography, certain passages in the text cry out for specific documentation. For example, he mentions that Jesuit priests in 17th century China ordered the prohibition, and even burning of books on the subject of feng shui. It would have been helpful to see specific documentation for such claims. Aside from this, _The Riddle of the Compass_ is an admirable book that uncovers a little-known history of the compass, a navigational tool so common today that we take it for granted, and discusses how, by radically improving maritime navigation, it changed the world by opening up new possibilities of commerce and conquest.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Readable, but somewhat off course
By M. A Michaud
Aczel describes the compass as the second most important technological innovation in history, after the wheel. He then proceeds to wander through a series of brief histories without chronological order, giving disproportionate attention to a man who may or may not have lived in Amalfi, Italy. Aczel is at his best in capsule histories of maritime activity, but is frustratingly unsystematic in his chronologies and his descriptions of how the compass is used. He mentions the Global Positioning System, but does not tell us how it works. The figure titled "how the magnetic compass works" is misleading, as it shows the axis of the Earth's magnetic field coinciding with the Earth's axis of rotation. One gets the impression of a hastily written book.
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