history_of_electromagnetism
Table of Contents
History of electromagnetism
| Stan Zurek, History of electromagnetism, Encyclopedia Magnetica, https://e-magnetica.pl/doku.php/history_of_electromagnetism |
History of electromagnetism - this page is a collection of important discoveries in the history of electromagnetism, ranging from electrostatics, through magnetostatics, to electromagnetics, waves and optic.
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Ancient times
Before 18th century
| 1064 - Discovery that iron quenched from red hot acquires magnetization by Zheng Gongliang (China)4) |
| 1088 - Navigational compass invented by Shen Kua (China)5) |
| 1190 - Compass construction described by Alexander Neckam (England)6) |
| 1269 - Polarity of magnetic poles described by Pierre de Maricourt (also known as Peter Peregrinus)7) |
| 1600 - Movement of compass needle and Eearth's magnetic field described by William Gilbert8) who also proposed the word “electric”9), see also: gilbert |
18th century
| 1743 - Horseshoe magnet invented by Daniel Bernoulli (Switzerland)10) |
| 1745 - Method of reliable magnetisation of steel developed by Gowin Knight (England)11) |
| 1745 - Leyden jar (first capacitor) invented by Pieter van Musschenbroek and Ewald von Kleist12) |
| 1747 - Existence of positive and negative electric charges proposed by Benjamin Franklin13) |
| 1750 - Inverse-square law governing forces between poles discovered by John Michell (England)14) |
| 1778 - Diamagnetism discovered by Anton Brugmans (Netherlands) 15) |
| 1785 - Coulomb's law of electrostatic forces formulated by Charles-Augustine de Coulomb (France)16) |
| 1786 - Twitching of frog's leg by electricity studied by Luigi Galvani (Italy)17), see also: galvanic |
| 1800 - Electric battery invented by Alessandro Volta (Italy)18), see also: volt |
19th century
| 1801 - Force between two wires with electric current discovered by Nicholas Gautherot19) |
| 1820 - Magnetic field around a wire with electric current discovered by Hans Christian Ørsted20), see also: oersted |
| 1820 - Magnetic force between two wires with current demonstrated by André-Marie Ampère21), see Ampere's law and ampere |
| 1820 - Magnetic force due to current calculated by Jean-Baptiste Biot and Félix Savart22), see Biot-Savart law |
| 1821 - Principle of electric motor discovered by Michael Faraday23), see also: farad |
| 1824 - Iron-cored electromagnet invented by William Sturgeon24) |
| 1825 - Compass needle rotating above spinning copper disc demonstrated by Francois Arago25) |
| 1826 - Galvanometer invented by Johann Christian Poggendorff26) |
| 1827 - Ohm's law proposed by Georg Ohm27) |
| 1830 - powerful practical electromagnet (lifting over 900 kg) created by Joseph Henry28), see also: henry |
| 1831 - Electromagnetic induction and transformer discovered by Micheal Faraday29), see Faraday's law |
| 1831 - practical DC motor invented by Joseph Henry30) |
| 1834 - Lenz's law formulated by Emil Lenz31) |
| 1834 - Horizontal motor invented by Moritz von Jacobi32) |
| 1842 - Magnetostriction discovered by James Joule33), see also: joule |
| 1845 - The name “magnetic field” introduced by Michael Faraday34) |
| 1869 - Periodic table of elements created by Dimitri Mendeleev35) |
| 1873 - All equations of electromagnetism first summarised by James Clerk Maxwell36), see Maxwell's equations |
| 1879 - Hall effect for negative charges discovered by Edwin Herbert Hall37) |
| 1881 - The name “hysteresis” is proposed (and the phenomenon studied in iron) by James Ewing38) |
| 1882 - Vector notation and analysis proposed by Oliver Heaviside and Josiah Willard Gibbs39) |
| 1884 - Poynting theorem proposed by John Henry Poynting40) |
| 1885 - Maxwell's equations rationalised to just four by Oliver Heaviside41) |
| 1886 - first DC current motor invented by Frank Julian Sprague42) |
| 1887 - Magnetic potentiometer described by A.P. Chattock43) |
| 1890 - Right-hand and left-hand rules proposed by John Ambrose Fleming44) |
| 1892 - Theory of the electron published by Hendrik Lorentz45) |
| 1894 - The word “electron” proposed by G.J. Stoney46) |
| 1895 - X-rays discovered by Wilhelm Röntgen47) |
| 1896 - Radioactivity discovered by Henri Becquerel48) |
| 1896 - Rotational loss measured by Francis Gibson Baily49) |
| 1897 - Electron discovered by Joseph John Thomson50) |
| 1900 - Magnetic domains (initially called “molecular groups”) proposed by James Ewing51) |
20th century
| 1905 - Thermionic valve (first diode) patented by John Ambrose Fleming52) |
| 1905 - Photon and photoelectric effect described by Albert Einstein53) |
| 1906 - Theory of ferromagnetism proposed by Pierre Weiss54) |
| 1909 - Charge and mass of electron measured by Robert A. Millikan and Harvey Fletcher55) |
| 1911 - Atomic nucleus discovered by Ernest Rutherford56) |
| 1911 - Superconductivity in mercury discovered by Kamerlingh Onnes57) |
| 1911 - Proton discovered by Ernest Rutherford58) |
| 1916 - Rogowski coil patented by Walter Rogowski59) |
| 1919 - Barkhausen noise discovered by Heinrich Barkhausen60) |
| 1925 - Electron spin discovered by George Uhlenbeck and Samuel Goudsmit61) |
| 1931 - Existence of magnetic monopoles proposed by Paul Dirac62) |
| 1932 - Neutron discovered by James Chadwick63) |
| 1934 - Method for producing grain-oriented electrical steel patented by Norman P. Goss64) |
| 1935 - Principles of domain theory established by Lev Landau and Evgenii Lifschitz65) |
| 1936 - Powder material Sendust invented by Hakaru Masumoto66) |
| 1955 - Needle probes (for measuring flux density) patented by Ernst Czeija and Robert Zawischa67) |
| 1967 - Ferromagnetic amorphous alloy demonstrated by Pol Dowez and S.C.H. Lin of California Institute of Technology68) |
| 1980 - Quantum Hall effect discovered by Klaus von Klitzing69) |
| 1984 - Neodymium magnets invented independently by M. Sagawa, S. Fujimura, N. Togawa, H. Yamamoto, Y. Matsura of Sumitomo Special Metals Company, and J. J. Croat, J. F. Herbst, R. W. Lee, F. E. Pinkerton of General Motors Research Laboratories70) |
| 1988 - Nanocrystalline material invented by Yoshihito Yoshizawa, Shigeru Oguma, and Kiyotaka Yamauchi of Hitachi Metals71) |
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history_of_electromagnetism.txt · Last modified: 2025/08/01 22:53 by stan_zurek