The compass is an instrument containing a freely suspended magnetic element which displays the direction of the horizontal component of the Earth's magnetic field at the point of observation. The magnetic compass is an old Chinese invention. Chinese fortune tellers used lodestones to construct their fortune telling boards. Magnetite was nicknamed lodestone and used by early navigators to locate the magnetic North Pole.
Eventually someone noticed that the lodestones were better at pointing out real directions, leading to the first compasses. …
