William Gilbert, English physician and physicist shown with his book De Magnete, Magneticisique Corporibus, et de Magno Magnete Tellure (On the Magnet

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William Gilbert, English physician and physicist shown with his book De Magnete, Magneticisique Corporibus, et de Magno Magnete Tellure (On the Magnet and Magnetic Bodies, and on the Great Magnet the Earth). Published in 1600 it was a pioneering study in magnetism, which established his reputation as a physicist. One of Gilbert's great contributions was to suggest that the Earth was a large magnetic sphere & that a compass needle points not to the heavens, but to the magnetic poles on the also studied static electricity using regard him as \the father of modern electricity\" and Galileo considered him to be the founder of experimentalism. Gilbert was also physician to Queen Elizabeth 1."

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Keywords: 1544-1603, 16th, century, de, earth, electricity, experimentalist, father, field, gilbert, history, magnete, magnetic, magnetism, physicist, pioneer, pioneering, portraits, science, technology, terrella, william, work