Page "Edward Sabine" Paragraph 29

During these decades the Royal Navy and Royal Society devoted so much energy to the problems of magnetic variation that magnetism came to be seen as an eminently " British " science.

There was intense interest in figuring out what many called " the great remaining physical mystery since Newton's work on gravitation.

" By the beginning of the nineteenth century, it was widely recognized that the Earth's magnetic field was continually changing over time in a complicated way that interfered with compass readings.

It was a mystery which some scientists believed might be associated with weather patterns.