Abstract
FEW discoveries in physical science have been more important in themselves, or richer in practical results, than Faraday's discovery of the induction of electrical currents; and with the exception of the immortal work of Newton on the properties of Light, it would be difficult to mention any other experimental nvcstigation, as it first issued from the hands of the author, so complete in all its details, or so full of new and original facts. Œrsted's grand discovery, which linked together electricity and magnetism, had already yielded a scientific harvest of uncommon richness. It led immediately to the construction of electro-magnets vastly exceeding in power any permanent magnets which were then known or have since been made. The multiplier or galvanometer of Schweigger supplied a new and important instrument for measuring electrical currents, which, with a little modification, became the electric telegraph. Faraday discovered the rotatoiy character of the reciprocal action of magnets and electrical currents; and Ampère showed that all the properties of a permanent magnet could be explained on the hypothesis of electrical currents in a fixed direction circulating around the magnet. A problem which proved to be one of surpassing difficulty, and long baffled many of the most distinguished physicists of Europe—to obtain electrical currents by means of a steel magnet—was in 1831 completely solved in the exhaustive memoir by Faraday, in which he announced the discovery of the induction of electrical currents. It may be interesting to describe nearly in his own words, Faraday's original experiments.
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Magneto-Electric Machines * . Nature 12, 90–92 (1875). https://doi.org/10.1038/012090a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/012090a0