section_path: History
section_name: History
paragraph_text: History
  
  The first compasses in ancient Han dynasty China were made of lodestone, a naturally magnetized ore of iron. The wet compass reached Southern India in the 4th century AD. Later compasses were made of iron needles, magnetized by striking them with a lodestone, which appeared in China by 1088 during the Song dynasty, as described by Shen Kuo. Dry compasses began to appear around 1300 in Medieval Europe and the Islamic world. This was supplanted in the early 20th century by the liquid-filled magnetic compass.