Three-quarters of an hour later

 Two enthusiasts, as they aptly put it, state that "our project is ambitious but not impossible." They have collected and published books—almost all of them related to the sciences (mathematics, physics, etc.)—that can be downloaded or read directly online, and I got hooked on two of them that completely caught my attention. One of them is titled "Three Millennia of the Magnet," written by V. P. Kartsev. 

 

§2. Mysteries of the Golden Cylinder

A chapter dedicated to intuition, against which a golden cylinder revolted, undermining faith in one of the most beautiful theories about the origin of the magnetic field of the Sun and the stars.
— When I say North, declared the mate,
I mean the place the compass points to.
— But when I say North, I replied,
I mean the North.
Three-quarters of an hour later, this argument took a terrible turn.
Rockwell Kent, N by E

(Originally published on 05-21-2007)