LOADSTAR,

LOADSTONE, noun [from the verb lead and stone. The old orthography, lodestone, is most correct, as this word has no connection with the verb to load.]

The native magnet, an ore of iron in the lowest state of oxidation, which has the power of attracting metallic iron, as iron filings, and of communicating to masses of iron the same property of attraction, forming artificial magnets. [See Lodestone.]