Compasses
"When the people of the State of Zheng go out in search of jade, they carry a south pointer with them so as not to lose their way in the mountains." This quote is the earliest record of people using compasses. It is a primary source. They balanced a piece of lodestone on top of a disc of jade. The lodestone was made into a pointer and it turned south. They made the device to find their way after farming jade. In the Zheng dynasty they began to use compasses for ocean travel. Lodestone was first used by fortune tellers. They used it like a compass but they didn't know that the needle always pointed north. They believed that the needle pointed a places for good luck.
The first compass (above) was a spoon made of lodestone on top of a bronze plate. The lines spreading out from the spoon show the directions. The handle always pointed south. They then replaced the spoon with a magnetic needle. They rubbed an iron needle with a magnet and then threw it into water. An interesting fact is that Chinese compasses always pointed south and not north.