Lesson 12 Part 1 Different from the StartFive-year-old Albert Einstein stared at his hand as if it held magic.Cupped in his palm was a small,round instrument with a glass cover and a jiggling needle.Albert's father called it a compass.Albert called it a mystery.No matter how he moved the compass, the needle always pointed to the north.Quietly Hermann Einstein watched his son.Albert was a chubby little boy with pale, round cheeks and thick, black hair that was usually messy.His bright brown eyes were wide with discovery.Something was in the room with him, Albert realized--something he couldn't see or feel, but that acted on the compass just the same.Spellbound, Albert listened to his father explain magnetism, the strange force that made the compass needle point north.But nothing his father said made the invisible power seem less mysterious or wonderful.To many children the compass would have been just another toy.To Albert the compass was a miracle he would never forget.But then Albert had always been different from other children.Born March 14,1879,in Ulm, Germany, Albert hadn't been looked like other babies.As she cradled her new son in her arms, Pauline Einstein thought the back of his head looked strange.Other babies didn't have such large, pointed skulls.