中国古代指南鱼和指南针的复原实验研究

Recovery experiment of ancient Chinese inventions of guide fish and compass

按照《武经总要》中关于指南鱼制作和使用的记载,观察实验发现:只要观察足够长的时间,制作的指南鱼都有稳定指南的效果,观察时间是复原实验成功的关键.通过对比实验发现:指南鱼是否成功指南与其是否经过磁化或正对南北方向蘸水淬火无关,薄铁片按南北方向蘸水并不能被地磁场磁化获得磁性;用普通薄铁片或薄钢片加工成条形,直接用水浮法实验,普通针或钢针能有效指南.根据《梦溪笔谈》中关于指南针制法的记载,通过复原实验发现:用普通天然磁石摩擦针后,不能明显增强磁性,用缕悬法实验针不能有效指南,只有用磁铁磁化针后实验才能成功.

According to the descriptions in an ancient Chinese writing,The Outline of Military Science（Wu Jing Zong Yao）,after careful and meticulous observations and experiments,it was found that the restored guide fish could point to the south steadily if the observation time was long enough.Thus,the observation time was the key to the success of the recovery experiment.Comparison experiment indicated that the guide fish had nothing to do with magnetization or water quenching in northsouth direction.Ordinary thin iron or steel strip,ordinary needle or ordinary steel needle could point to the south when floating on water.According to the record of compass in Brush Talks from Dream Brook（Meng Xi Bi Tan）,the recovery experiment results showed that the magnetism of a needle could not be enhanced significantly by rubbing it with lodestone,and the needle could not point to the south effectively when it was hung with a single strain of silk,and the recovery experiment could be carried out successfully when the needle was magnetized by magnet.