# Michael Faraday

> Electromagnetism and the Electric Motor

**Published by:** [morsansa](https://paragraph.com/@korsansa/)
**Published on:** 2025-12-10
**Categories:** #electromagnetism and the electric motor
**URL:** https://paragraph.com/@korsansa/michael-faraday

## Content

Michael Faraday: Electromagnetism and the Electric Motor Michael Faraday (1791–1867) was a self-taught English chemist and physicist who, despite a lack of formal education, became one of the greatest experimentalists in history. His work provided the fundamental empirical foundation for the study of electromagnetism. Faraday’s most profound contributions were the discovery of electromagnetic induction—the principle that underpins all modern generators and transformers—and the invention of the first device to convert electrical energy into mechanical motion: the electric motor. His concepts also paved the way for Maxwell's Equations (Article 161). The Discovery of Electromagnetic Induction Following the work of Hans Christian Ørsted, who showed that electricity could produce magnetism, Faraday sought to prove the reverse: that magnetism could produce electricity. The Experiment (1831): Faraday wrapped two separate coils of wire around opposite sides of an iron ring. He connected one coil to a battery and the other to a galvanometer (an instrument to measure current). The Finding: He observed that current flowed in the second coil only when the switch connecting the first coil to the battery was turned ON or OFF—that is, when the magnetic field through the iron ring was changing. When the magnetic field was steady, no current flowed. The Principle: This proved the phenomenon of electromagnetic induction: a changing magnetic field induces an electromotive force (voltage) and thus an electric current in a nearby conductor. This discovery is the essential principle behind all electric generators (which create a changing magnetic field by spinning a coil of wire in a magnet) and transformers (Article 154). The Electric Motor A decade earlier, in 1821, Faraday had already designed the first device that used electricity to create continuous, circular motion—a prototype electric motor. The Mechanism: He placed a wire carrying an electric current in a pool of mercury with a magnet fixed in the center. The current created a magnetic field around the wire, which interacted with the field of the fixed magnet, causing the wire to revolve continuously around the magnet. Impact: This was the first experimental proof that electrical energy could be converted into mechanical energy (motion), establishing the foundation for all subsequent electric motors. Faraday's Laws of Electrolysis In chemistry, Faraday also made fundamental discoveries concerning how electricity interacts with chemical solutions (electrolysis). The Laws: He formulated the Laws of Electrolysis, which state that the amount of chemical reaction occurring at an electrode is directly proportional to the amount of electric charge passed through the solution. This work established the quantitative relationship between electricity and chemical bonding and proved that electricity was quantized (existing in discrete units, later confirmed as the electron, Article 156). The Concept of Fields Perhaps Faraday’s most conceptually profound contribution was his qualitative introduction of the idea of fields. Lines of Force: He visualized electrical and magnetic forces not as "action at a distance" (like Newton's gravity), but as lines of force permeating space. He argued that the space around a magnet or charge was filled with a physical entity—a field—that transmitted the force. Legacy: This idea was revolutionary and provided the conceptual framework that James Clerk Maxwell (Article 161) later translated into rigorous mathematical form with his equations, describing the electromagnetic field. In Conclusion: Michael Faraday was a peerless experimentalist whose work provided the essential foundation for electromagnetism. His discovery of electromagnetic induction (that a changing magnetic field produces electricity) enabled the invention of the electric generator and transformer. He also invented the first rudimentary electric motor and introduced the powerful concept of fields to describe the transmission of force, making his contributions indispensable to both physics and electrical engineering.

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