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loadstone

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Wikipedia 0.01 sec.
loadstone: see magnetite magnetite , lustrous black, magnetic mineral, Fe3O4. It occurs in crystals of the cubic system, in masses, and as a loose sand. It is one of the important ores of iron (magnetic iron ore) and is a common constituent of igneous and metamorphic
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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
loadstone [′lōd‚stōn]
(mineralogy)
lodestone


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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.
Gulliver's Travels by Swift, Jonathan View in context
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.
Moby Dick LXVIII-CXXXIV by Melville, Herman View in context
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.
A Tale Of Two Cities by Dickens, Charles View in context
 
 
 
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