The Faraday centenary : an errand boy who changed the world.

Date:
[1931]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Faraday centenary : an errand boy who changed the world. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    magnetic needle. He found that whenever he started or stopped the current from the battery the magnetic needle was deflected, showing that the magnetism produced by the first coil induced a momentary current in the second coil. By patient and determined investigation during the next few weeks he discovered that when he moved a magnet close to a coil of wire, he again produced momentary currents in the coil. By ro¬ tating a disc or coil between the poles of a magnet, Faraday obtained a steady current of electricity, and so made the first dynamo. These experiments, simple though they seem to us, may be regarded as the foundation of all our modern electrical progress. Many clever engineers have developed Faraday’s work; but the fact remains that the immense electrical generating sets of our power stations to-day are but elaborations of his discovery that by rotating coils of wire in a magnetic field electricity is generated. We are able to collect these momentary currents, to multiply them enormously, to raise them to high pressures, to control them, to convert them into a steady flow, to make them do the work of the world; yet the principle remains un¬ altered. Faraday’s ring experiment. “.. . whenever he started or stopped the current from the battery the magnetic needle was deflected”
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