Abstract: An electromagnetic lifting device for handling a ferromagnetic material, which device has a magnetic assembly consisting of a plurality of movable magnetic pole members having relatively small pole areas, and said assembly has a given total pole area, thus said total area being the sum of the pole areas of the movable magnetic pole members. In this electromagnetic lifting device, the respective magnetic pole members to be excited electrically are assembled in a manner to permit same to move vertically relative to each other, so that the magnetic pole members can accommodate themselves to the configuration, such as concave, convex or curved surface of a ferromagnetic material and move in vertical direction so as to freely contact the surface of the ferromagnetic material, thereby exerting an effective lifting force on the ferromagnetic material.