Electromagnetic induction, discovery

Isaac Newton modestly claimed to have stood on the shoulders of giants to explain how he was able to achieve his outstanding discoveries in the fields of gravitational attraction and planetary motion our Giants in the field of electromagnetic induction would probably have said the same. 

The electrical age was built on the discovery in the early 1830s, independently by Joseph Henry (1797-1878) in America and Michael Faraday (1791-1867) in England, of electromagnetic induction, which led directly to the invention of the dynamo to generate electricity from steam-powered rotation. It came to fruition on New Year s Eve, 1879, when Thomas Edison (1847-1931) in rural New Jersey, after systematic and exhaustive experiments, made the first successful incandescent lamp, employing a carbonised filament made from some thread taken from Mrs. Edison s sewing cabinet. The lamp burned undimmed for 40 h, watched anxiously by Edison and some of his numerous collaborators. This lamp was ideal for... 

Transformers were developed through a series of scientific discoveries in the nineteenth century. Most notably, Michael Faraday showed in 1831 that a variable magnetic field could be used to create a current, thus pioneering the concept of electromagnetic induction. It was not until the 1880s that Nikola Tesla was able to use this principle to bolster his patents for a universal ac distribution network. 

Such considerations may provoke new directions yet to be investigated, but at this initial stage one should not forget the anecdote of Michael Faraday, who at the end of his lecture about the discovery of electromagnetic induction was asked by someone in the audience Sir, for what good is your new discovery Faraday answered For what good is a new bom baby ... 

Faraday, Michael (1791-1867) British chemist and physicist, who received little formal education. He started to experiment on electricity and in 1812 attended lectures by Sir Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution a year later he became Dav/s assistant He remained at the Institution until 1861. Faraday s chemical discoveries include the liquefaction of chlorine (1823) and benzene (1825) as well as the laws of electrolysis [see Faraday s laws). He is probably best remembered for his work in physics in 1821 he demonstrated electromagnetic rotation (the principle of the electric motor) and discovered electromagnetic induction (the principle of the dynamo). In 1845 he discovered the Faraday effect. 

Ever since the discovery of the voltaic pile, there had been doubt about the identity of voltaic and common (i.e. frictional) electricity. In 1831 Faraday made his classic discovery of electromagnetic induction, and thus added a third type of electricity. The first experiment Faraday performed after he had discovered the induced current was to see if it would produce any decomposition in a drop of copper sulphate solution. The quantity of electricity passed was too small to produce any... 

Maxwell, who was born in 1831, the year that Faraday published his discovery of electromagnetic induction, expressed Faraday s discoveries mathematically in field theory in 1855-1857, followed by his major work in four electromagnetic field equations, expressed in vector form as follows ... 

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