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(physics) a device that attracts iron and produces a magnetic field

a characteristic that provides pleasure and attracts; "flowers are an attractor for bees"

The loadstone; a species of iron ore (the ferrosoferric or magnetic ore, Fe3O4) which has the property of attracting iron and some of its ores, and, when freely suspended, of pointing to the poles; - called also natural magnet.

A bar or mass of steel or iron to which the peculiar properties of the loadstone have been imparted; - called, in distinction from the loadstone, an artificial magnet.

The loadstone; a species of iron ore (the ferrosoferric or magnetic ore, Fe3O4) which has the property of attracting iron and some of its ores, and, when freely suspended, of pointing to the poles; - called also natural magnet.

A bar or mass of steel or iron to which the peculiar properties of the loadstone have been imparted; - called, in distinction from the loadstone, an artificial magnet.

The loadstone; a variety of ore having the property of attracting iron; a steel bar having the power to attract iron artificially given to it; a person or thing that attracts.

Lodestone, magnetite, native magnetic oxide of iron, a body which has the property of attracting particles of iron and which has magnetic polarity, i.e. when freely suspended, it tends to assume a definite direction between the magnetic poles of the earth. This is a natural magnet; an artificial magnet is a bar or horseshoe-shaped piece of iron which has been made magnetic by contact with another magnet.

The lodestone, an iron ore which attracts iron, and, when freely suspended, points to the poles: a bar or piece of steel to which the properties of the lodestone have been imparted.

The lodestone; piece of iron or steel having the properties of the lodestone, viz.; attracting iron and pointing to the poles.

A body capable of attracting to itself iron and steel.

The loadstone; a steel bar to which the properties of the loadstone have been imparted.

The loadstone, which has the property of attracting iron, and of pointing to the poles when freely suspended; a bar of steel, to which the properties of the loadstone are imparted by contact; any piece of iron rendered powerfully attractive by a galvanic current; any powerful attraction.

called from Magnes, its discoverer, or from Magnesia, where it is said to have been first found. (F.) Aimant, Pierre d'Aimant. The magnet or loadstous. An amorphous, oxydulated ore of iron, which exerts an attraction on unmagnetized iron, and has the property of exhibiting poles; that is, of pointing by one of its extremities to the north. This ore, by constant or long rubbing, communicates its properties to iron; and thus artificial magnets are formed. Magnetic is found in many countries, and particularly on the island of Elba. The magnet is sometimes used to extract spicula of iron from the eye or from wounds. It has been employed as an antispasmodic; but acts only through the imagination. The powder has been given as a tonic. In Pharmacy, it is used to purify iron filings. It attracts the iron, and the impurities remain behind. It formerly entered, as an ingredient, into several plasters, to draw bullets and heads of arrows from the body- as the Emplastrum divinum Nicolai, the Emplastrum nigrum of Augsburg, the Opodeldoch, and Attractivum of Paracelsus, etc.

A substance possessing the property of attracting iron, also other substances (especially nickel) in a much feebler degree, and of being itself attracted by those substances. The points at or near the ends of a magnetic bar where such attraction is concentrated, and which, owing to the earth's magnetic attraction, assume a position toward the north and south respectively, are the poles of the magnet. There are two kinds of m's, the natural m.-loadstone, magnetic iron oxid (q. v., under iron)-and artificial m's (i. e., bars or needles of steel), which have acquired magnetic properties from being rubbed with a m., or otherwise.

n. [Latin] The loadstone; a species of iron ore which has the property of attracting iron and some of its ores, and, when freely suspended, of pointing to the poles;— a bar of steel or iron to which the properties of the loadstone have been Imparted— called an artificial magnet.