1820 – Electromagnetism Established
As part of our 200 year anniversary we are celebrating momentous events in history starting from 1817 through to 2017. This week it is 1820 and the establishment of electromagnetism;
Whilst it has been discussed as early as the 18th century it was in 1820 electromagnetism was established by Hans Christian Ørsted of Copenhagen.
It is quoted that Ørsted started his theory, the prior year in 1819, when he discovered “the deflecting effect of an electric current traversing a wire upon a suspended magnetic needle”. This involved using a compass and proved there was a strong relationship between electricity and magnetism.
This was then followed up in 1821 by Ampére who laid the foundation for electrodynamics through his experiments and subsequent discovery:
If two parrell sections of a circuit have currents flowing in the same direction they will attract one another. Likewise if the current flows in the opposite direction they will repel each other.
Work on electromagnetism continued right into the 20th Century so there is much more information available on the subject and you can find relevant products for this subject here.
