The north pole of the bar-magnet will repel the north pole of the suspended needle, and there will likewise be repulsion between the two south poles.
If a wire of soft iron is substituted for the suspended magnetic needle, either pole of the bar-magnet will attract either end of the wire indifferently.
Some of the principal phenomena of magnetism may be demonstrated with very little apparatus; much may be done with a small bar-magnet, a pocket compass and a few ounces of iron filings.
Steel articles, such as knitting or sewing needles and pieces of flat spring, may be readily magnetized by stroking them with the bar-magnet; after having produced magnetism in any number of other bodies, the magnet will have lost nothing of its own virtue.
If one pole of the bar-magnet is brought near the compass, it will attract the opposite pole of the compass-needle; and the magnetic action will not be sensibly affected by the interposition between the bar and the compass of any substance whatever except iron or other magnetizable metal.
