This article presents a brief history of the beginning of the science of magnetism, which took place independently in three different continents. The methodology of causal models in the history of science is applied to represent these independent paths, where the notion of "developmental bottleneck" appears. Special attention is given to the definition of "generalized advances", which encompass different species of advances and simplify the causal diagrams. The historical survey covers the advances in magnetism in China and Europe until 1600.
Lodestone; Magnetic compass; History of magnetism; Causal models; Developmental bottleneck; Generalized advances
