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loadstone

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.09 sec.
loadstone: see magnetite magnetite (măg`nətīt), lustrous black, magnetic mineral, Fe3O4.
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lodestone, loadstone
a. a rock that consists of pure or nearly pure magnetite and thus is naturally magnetic
b. a piece of such rock, which can be used as a magnet and which was formerly used as a primitive compass


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? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
But the greatest curiosity, upon which the fate of the island depends, is a loadstone of a prodigious size, in shape resembling a weaver's shuttle.
In instances where the lightning has actually struck the vessel, so as to smite down some of the spars and rigging, the effect upon the needle has at times been still more fatal; all its loadstone virtue being annihilated, so that the before magnetic steel was of no more use than an old wife's knitting needle.
Like the mariner in the old story, the winds and streams had driven him within the influence of the Loadstone Rock, and it was drawing him to itself, and he must go.
 
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