lodestones

The fact that lodestones are found only at shallow depth seems to support the lightning theory.

Weatherwatch: How does magnetite become magnetised? 2011

Like other types of magnetite, they are hard, black and shiny, but lodestones are special because they are naturally magnetised, thanks to the effects of lightning.

Weatherwatch: How does magnetite become magnetised? 2011

Wasilewski has proved that magnetite samples can be magnetised in the laboratory, though it's hard to show this occurs in nature until a magnetite outcrop can be checked before and after a lightning strike for the presence of lodestones.

Weatherwatch: How does magnetite become magnetised? 2011

In spite of everything, Louisa met Thoreau and Emerson, two men who would be lodestones in her intellectual development.

Louisa May Alcott Susan Cheever 2010

Gone is the magic that lodestones once held in the minds of the public.

Weird Stones Heather McDougal 2007

In any case, I've spent many years thinking of lodestones as this magical thing, this alchemically deep side of an everyday object, something from that dark crack in the sunshine of reality.

Weird Stones Heather McDougal 2007

CE; the Chinese understood lodestones to be trying to return to their mother stone.

Weird Stones Heather McDougal 2007

As soon as magnetism was fully explained, and people began being able to make imitation lodestones (magnets), the basic mystery about their actual status as weird stones seems to have lost its power.

Weird Stones Heather McDougal 2007

They also believed lodestones to be an important factor in geomancy, otherwise known as feng shui

Weird Stones Heather McDougal 2007

My first conscious awareness of lodestones magical stones was in a horrific scene in Susan Cooper's The Grey King, from the Dark is Rising series (If you have not read this, you should; or at least buy it for someone young in your life, and watch them get all interested).

Weird Stones Heather McDougal 2007