Magnetometer

views updated May 18 2018

Magnetometer

A device invented by the Abbé Fortin (ca. 1864) consisting of a piece of paper cut to the shape of a compass needle and considered to indicate some kind of electromagnetic force. It was suspended in a glass cylinder by a silk fiber. If the cylinder was approached by a hand, the paper (over a dial of 360 degrees) would either turn toward the hand or away from it.

Carried out in a more substantial form with a "metallic multiplicator," a condenser, and a needle, the magnetometer was used for the study of terrestrial magnetism to solve meteorological problems. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, it has been used for dowsing.

(See also Biometer of Baraduc ; De Tromelin Cylinder ; water witching )

magnetometer

views updated May 08 2018

magnetometer An instrument for measuring either the direction or the intensity of a magnetic field. Common field instruments include the fluxgate type and nuclear-precession types. The fluxgate magnetometer can also be used as a gradiometer and it is therefore most sensitive to shallow magnetic sources. Observatory instruments include the dip-circle and astatic types.