In 1558, the famous natural magician Giambattista della Porta was the first to allude to a method of transmitting secret messages by using manipulated magnetic compasses. Soon thereafter, this idea, known in modern historiography as ‘magnetic telegraphy’, was spelled out and advertised by many early modern scholars as a promising technology of communication by action at a distance. In 1609, Daniel Schwenter created the most sophisticated design for the fulfillment of this potential: two compass needles were to be magnetized in a highly codified procedure to establish a sympathetic bond between them. Used in a compass circumscribed by an alphabet, one needle would turn to a certain letter whenever the other needle was moved to that same letter. Through ‘sympathy’, it was thought that this could made to occur even over a distance of many miles. The idea’s first critic, the Jesuit, Leonardo Garzoni, was quick to dismiss it as charlatanry, and many later authors argued that the device could not work as there was no such ‘sympathy’ or magnetism between the two devices. Though only a fanciful pipe dream of natural magic, this pseudo-technology of a magnetic telegraph yet testifies to the imagination of early modern scholars in having prefigured the modern reality of instantaneous global communication.

中文翻译：

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如何在近代早期从罗马向巴黎发送秘密信息：磁力、同情和骗术之间的电报

1558 年，著名的自然魔术师 Giambattista della Porta 率先提到使用可操纵的磁罗盘来传输秘密信息的方法。此后不久，这个在现代史学中被称为“磁电报”的想法被许多早期现代学者阐明并宣传为一种有前途的远距离通信技术。1609 年，丹尼尔·施文特 (Daniel Schwenter) 为实现这一潜力创造了最复杂的设计：两个罗盘针将按照高度规范化的程序磁化，以在它们之间建立交感纽带。用于以字母表为界的罗盘，当另一根指针移动到同一个字母时，一根指针将转向某个字母。通过“同情”，人们认为这甚至可以在许多英里的距离之外发生。这个想法的第一位批评者、耶稣会士莱昂纳多·加佐尼 (Leonardo Garzoni) 很快将其斥为骗局，许多后来的作者认为该设备无法工作，因为这两种设备之间没有这种“同情”或吸引力。虽然这只是自然魔法的幻想白日梦，但这种磁电报的伪技术却证明了早期现代学者的想象力已经预示了即时全球通信的现代现实。