Primarily, the compass was used for geomancy for a long time before it was used for navigation Ancient Chinese alchemists realized that the magnetite ore would point towards a magnetic north. Their ...

Chinese porcelains have been found as far south as Zanzibar and Tanzania. This was just before the Age of Exploration in the West. Accompanying the invention of the compass were other inventions ...

Until the arrival of GPS, the magnetic compass was the single most useful navigational tool available to humans. But it’s a recent invention. Although Chinese explorers understood the principles of ...