China is the country that invented the compass recognized in the world. The invention of the compass is the working people of the Han nationality in China in the practice of long-term understanding of objects magnetic object. Because of productive labor work, Chinese people get in touch with the magnetite and understand of the magnetic properties. They firstly discovered the nature of magnets attract iron, and later found that the point of the magnet. After many times of experiments and research, they finally invented a practical use magnetic compass.

The earliest compass is made with natural magnet, the Chinese people of Hanzu have found a natural magnet and its iron absorption for a long time. According to ancient records, far away in the Chun Qiu and Zhan Guo Period, is in slavery society to a feudal society, the transition period of great change, productivity has been greatly developed, especially agricultural production is flourishing developed, prompted by the mining industry. This helped the development of the mining industry. In the long-term production practice, people recognize the magnet from the iron ore. The earliest compass is named Si Nan. It is the first compass in China and the whole world.

A magnetic compass is very helpful to find direction in the ancient times. The Chinese, in the first century b.c.e., discovered that lodestone, an iron mineral, always pointed north when placed on a surface. The first Chinese compass was a spoon made of lodestone with markings indicating the four directions. Later, the Chinese enclosed the lodestone in a decorative casing, and used a needle to indicate which direction was north. The problem with lodestone, however, was that it easily lost its magnetic properties. After much experimentation with different metals, the Chinese discovered that adding carbon to iron to make steel gave the needle a strong magnetic charge that lasted for a long time.

Nowadays, there are very advanced tools to help people to find direction. But the magnetic compass is still a convenient and economic nature tool. There are many types of compasses which are widely used for direction.