How were the first strong magnets made without other preexisting strong magnets?

Question

I found John Canton’s method when searching for the answer online but I can’t figure out exactly what he did or why it would work.

A method of making artificial magnets without the use of natural ones.
https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_a-method-of-making-artif_canton-john-frs_1751/page/n5/mode/2up

In: Technology

Answer 1

John Canton’s method was the same as John Mitchell’s: both used pre-existing magnetic metal to impart magnetism to a piece of iron. Basically, nothing like what you describe was ever made prior to the discovery of electromagnetism. Only when people figured out that electricity has magnetic effects, and that some metals can become magnetized by placing them in electromagnetic fields, did it become possible to magnetize metal without pre-existing organic magnetics.