Timeline of Electricity and Magnetism

The fields of electricity and magnetism are intimately intertwined. However,

humankind’s knowledge of magnetism and static electricity began more
than 2,000 years before they were first recognized to be separate (though
interrelated) phenomena. Once that intellectual threshold was crossed – in
1551 – scientists took more bold steps forward (and more than a few steps
back) toward better understanding and harnessing these forces. The next
400 years would see a succession of discoveries that advanced our
knowledge of magnetism, electricity and the interplay between them,
leading to ever more powerful insights and revolutionary inventions.

This timeline highlights important events and developments in these fields

from prehistory to the beginning of the 21st century. It also includes related
developments in other disciplines (such as the evolution of computers).

600 BC - 1599 – Humans discover the magnetic lodestone as well as the

attracting properties of amber. Advanced societies, in particular the
Chinese and the Europeans, exploit the properties of magnets in
compasses, a tool that makes possible exploration of the seas, “new
worlds” and the nature of Earth’s magnetic poles.

1600 - 1699 – The Scientific Revolution takes hold, facilitating the

groundbreaking work of luminaries such as William Gilbert, who took the
first truly scientific approach to the study of magnetism and electricity and
wrote extensively of his findings.

1700 - 1749 – Aided by tools such as static electricity machines and

Leyden jars, scientists continue their experiments into the fundamentals of
magnetism and electricity.

1750 - 1774 – With his famous kite experiment and other forays into
science, Benjamin Franklin advances knowledge of electricity, inspiring his
English friend Joseph Priestley to do the same.

1775 - 1799 – Scientists take important steps toward a fuller understanding

of electricity, as well as some fruitful missteps, including an elaborate but
incorrect theory on animal magnetism that sets the stage for a
groundbreaking invention.
1800 - 1819 – Alessandro Volta invents the first primitive battery,
discovering that electricity can be generated through chemical processes;
scientists quickly seize on the new tool to invent electric lighting.
Meanwhile, a profound insight into the relationship between electricity and
magnetism goes largely unnoticed.

1820 - 1829 – Hans Christian Ørsted’s accidental discovery that an

electrical current moves a compass needle rocks the scientific world; a
spate of experiments follows, immediately leading to the first electromagnet
and electric motor.

1830 - 1839 – The first telegraphs are constructed and Michael Faraday
produces much of his brilliant and enduring research into electricity and
magnetism, inventing the first primitive transformer and generator.

1840 - 1849 – The legendary Faraday forges on with his prolific research
and the telegraph reaches a milestone when a message is sent between
Washington, DC, and Baltimore, MD.

1850 - 1869 – The Industrial Revolution is in full force, Gramme invents his
dynamo and James Clerk Maxwell formulates his series of equations on
electrodynamics.

1870 - 1879 – The telephone and first practical incandescent light bulb are
invented while the word “electron” enters the scientific lexicon.

1880 - 1889 – Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison duke it out over the best
way to transmit electricity and Heinrich Hertz is the first person
(unbeknownst to him) to broadcast and receive radio waves.

1890 - 1899 – Scientists discover and probe x-rays and radioactivity, while
inventors compete to build the first radio.

1900 - 1909 – Albert Einstein publishes his special theory of relativity and
his theory on the quantum nature of light, which he identified as both a
particle and a wave. With ever new appliances, electricity begins to
transform everyday life.

1910 - 1929 – Scientists’ understanding of the structure of the atom and of

its component particles grows, the phone and radio become common, and
the modern television is born.
1930 - 1939 – New tools such as special microscopes and the cyclotron
take research to higher levels, while average citizens enjoy novel amenities
such as the FM radio.

1940 - 1959 – Defense-related research leads to the computer, the world

enters the atomic age and TV conquers America.

1960 - 1979 – Computers evolve into PCs, researchers discover one new
subatomic particle after another and the space age gives our psyches and
science a new context.

1980 - 2003 – Scientists explore new energy sources, the World Wide Web
spins a vast network and nanotechnology is born.

Pioneers in Electricity and Magnetism

Ampere, Celsius, Kelvin, Hertz, Tesla: These terms are familiar to all
science students. Behind them is a group of scientists who went down in
history for their groundbreaking work in magnetism and electricity. Who
were these brilliant inventors, physicists and chemists, and what lasting
contributions did they make to their fields - and to our lives? Get to know
these pioneers by visiting the individual pages below, which are hosted on
our sister site at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in
Tallahassee, Florida.

André-Marie Ampère (1775-1836) – Although he was not the first

person to observe a connection between electricity and magnetism,
André-Marie Ampère was the first scientist to attempt to theoretically
explain and mathematically describe the phenomenon. His contributions
laid the groundwork upon which the science of electrodynamics (a term
coined by Ampère, but now more commonly referred to as
electromagnetics) has been built.

Svante Arrhenius (1859-1927) – Svante Arrhenius was born in Vik,

Sweden, and became the first native of that country to win the Nobel
Prize. The award for chemistry was bestowed to him in honor of his theory
of electrolytic dissociation. In its incipient form, which appeared in his
doctoral dissertation, the theory was poorly received by his professors. The
barely passing grade that he was given for the dissertation did not
discourage Arrhenius, however, and his persistence eventually led to the
general acceptance of many of his ideas regarding electrolytes, acids,
bases and chemical reactions.

John Bardeen (1908-1991) – John Bardeen was one of a handful of

individuals awarded the Nobel Prize twice and the first scientist to win
dual awards in physics. Both times, he shared the prize with others. The
first time his co-recipients were Walter Brattain and William Shockley, who
combined their efforts with Brattain in the invention of the transistor. The
second time he shared the prize with Leon Cooper and Robert Schrieffer,
with whom he developed the first generally accepted theory of low-
temperature superconductivity.

Georg Bednorz (1950-Present) – J. Georg Bednorz jointly

revolutionized superconductivity research with K. Alex Müller by
discovering an entirely new class of superconductors, often referred to
as high-temperature superconductors. Since Heike Kamerlingh Onnes
discovered superconductivity in 1911, all superconductors known up until
the time of the Bednorz and Müller discovery lost their electrical resistance
and entered the superconducting state at temperatures barely above
absolute zero. These early superconductors were made of metals or
semiconducting alloys, but Bednorz and Müller managed to achieve
superconductivity at temperatures higher than any previously possible by
using ceramics made from metallic oxide mixtures.

Gerd Binnig (1947-Present) – A native of Germany, the physicist

Gerd Binnig co-developed the scanning tunneling
microscope (STM) with Heinrich Rohrer while the pair worked together at
the IBM Research Laboratory in Switzerland. The invention of the STM
allowed scientists entry into the atomic world in a new way and was a major
advance in the field of nanotechnology. For their remarkable achievement,
Binnig and Rohrer shared the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics with Ernst
Ruska, inventor of the electron microscope. That same year Binnig
developed the first atomic force microscope (AFM), further expanding the
array of tools available to researchers seeking a better understanding of
materials on an atomic scale.

Felix Bloch (1905-1983) – Physicist Felix Bloch developed a non-

destructive technique for precisely observing and measuring the
magnetic properties of nuclear particles. He called his technique “nuclear
induction,” but nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) soon became the
preferred term for the method, which was a notable advance upon an
earlier technique developed by Isidor Rabi. Bloch received half of the Nobel
Prize in Physics in 1952 for this work, sharing the award with Edward
Purcell, who independently developed a similar method of achieving and
detecting nuclear magnetic resonance at approximately the same time.
NMR is the basis of an important medical imaging technique, magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI).

Walter Brattain (1902-1987) – Walter Houser Brattain discovered

the photo-effect that occurs at the free surface of a semiconductor
and was co-creator of the point-contact transistor, which paved the way
for the more advanced types of transistors that eventually replaced vacuum
tubes in almost all electronic devices in the latter half of the twentieth
century. The invention of the transistor took place at Bell Labs, where
Brattain worked closely with John Bardeen as part of the solid-state physics
group headed by William Shockley. Brattain, Bardeen and Shockley shared
the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1956 for their combined efforts in the
development of the transistor.

Anders Celsius (1701-1744) – Anders Celsius is most familiar as

the inventor of the temperature scale that bears his name. The
Swedish astronomer, however, also is notable as the first person to make a
connection between the radiant atmospheric phenomenon known as
the aurora borealis, or the northern lights, and the magnetic field of the
Earth. He published his studies of the aurora borealis, including his
accurate speculation regarding its relation to magnetism, in 1733.
 Leon Cooper (1930-Present) – Leon Cooper shared the 1972 Nobel
Prize in Physics with John Bardeen and Robert Schrieffer, with whom
he developed the first widely accepted theory of superconductivity. Termed
the BCS theory, it is heavily based on a phenomenon known as Cooper
pairing. According to the theory, the electrons in a superconducting
material form associated pairs that together act as a single system. Unless
the movement of all pairs is halted simultaneously, the current flowing
through a superconductor meets no resistance, and will continue ad
infinitum.

Charles-Augustin de Coulomb (1736-1806) – Charles-Augustin de

Coulomb invented a device, dubbed the torsion balance, that
allowed him to measure very small charges and experimentally estimate
the force of attraction or repulsion between two charged bodies. The data
he obtained through his extensive use of the torsion balance enabled
Coulomb to formulate one of the fundamental laws of electromagnetism,
which bears his name (Coulomb’s law).

William Crookes (1832-1919) – English scientist William Crookes

was very innovative in his investigations with vacuum tubes and
designed a variety of different types to be used in his experimental
work. Crookes tubes are glass vacuum chambers that contain a positive
electrode (anode) and a negative electrode (cathode). When an electrical
current is passed between the electrodes of one of the tubes, a glow can
be seen in the chamber. Crookes also discovered the element Thallium.

Humphry Davy (1778-1829) – Humphry Davy was a pioneer in the

field of electrochemistry who used electrolysis to isolate many
elements from the compounds in which they occur naturally. Electrolysis is
the process by which an electrolyte is altered or decomposed via the
application of an electric current. In addition to his isolation of sodium,
potassium and other alkaline earth metals, electrolysis enabled Davy to
disprove the view proposed by French chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier
that oxygen was an essential component of all acids.

Peter Debye (1884-1966) – Peter Debye carried out pioneering

studies of molecular dipole moments, formulated theories of
magnetic cooling and of electrolytic dissociation, and developed an X-ray
diffraction technique for use with powdered, rather than crystallized,
substances. For his work with dipole moments, the vector quantities related
to the distribution of electric charges are measured indebyes. Also, in
recognition of a number of his scientific contributions, Debye received the
Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1936.

Lee De Forest (1873-1961) – American inventor Lee De Forest was

a pioneer of radio and motion pictures. He received more than 300
patents over the course of his lifetime, the most important of which was for
a three-electrode vacuum tube, or triode, that he called the Audion. The
invention of the Audion, a device capable of amplifying and modulating
electromagnetic signals that could also function as an oscillator, was a
crucial step in the early electronics industry. Until the invention of the
transistor in 1948, the triode was featured in almost all electronic
equipment.

Paul A. M. Dirac (1902-1984) – Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac was an

outstanding twentieth century theoretical physicist whose work was
fundamental to the development of quantum mechanics and quantum
electrodynamics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics jointly with
Erwin Schrödinger in 1933 for his contributions to atomic theory, Dirac’s
prediction of the existence of antimatterhaving been experimentally proven
by that time.

Willem Einthoven (1860-1927) – Willem Einthoven invented a string

galvanometer that could be used to directly record the electrical
activity of the heart. The investigations he carried out with the device
enabled him to determine that graphical recordings of heart activity,
or electrocardiograms as they came to be known, generally conform to a
basic type, that individuals produce their own characteristic
electrocardiograms typically conforming to this type, and that deviations are
often associated with heart disease. For his discovery of the mechanism of
the electrocardiogram, Einthoven was awarded the Nobel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine in 1924.

Roland Eötvös (1848-1919) – Vásárosnaményi Báró Eötvös Loránd,

better known as Roland EEötvös or Loránd Eötvös throughout much
of the world, was a Hungarian physicist who is most recognized for his
extensive experimental work involving gravity, but who also made
significant studies of capillarity and magnetism. He employed an instrument
of his own design commonly referred to as the Eötvös balance to make
extensive measurements, ultimately demonstrating to a much higher
degree of accuracy than had been ever achieved before that gravitational
mass and inertial mass are equivalent.

Enrico Fermi (1901-1954) – Enrico Fermi was a titan of twentieth-

century physics. Adept in both theory and experiment, the Italian-
born American outlined the statistical laws that govern the behavior of
particles that abide by the Pauli exclusion principle and developed a
theoretical model of the atom when he was only in his mid-twenties. He
went on to incorporate the neutral particle (lightheartedly hailed by Fermi as
the neutrino, or “little neutral one”) hypothesized by Wolfgang Pauli into a
quantitative theory of beta decay, as well as to demonstrate that
bombardment of elements with neutrons can generate artificial radioactivity
and that slow neutrons produce much Ber nuclear reactions. These latter
discoveries paved the way for invention of nuclear reactors and the atomic
bomb.

Richard Feynman (1918-1988) – Theoretical physicist Richard

Phillips Feynman greatly simplified the way in which the interactions
of particles could be described through his introduction of the diagrams that
now bear his name (Feynman diagrams) and was a co-recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 for his reworking of quantum
electrodynamics (QED). He is often remembered as much for his offbeat
personality and lively wit as for his considerable contributions to twentieth-
century physics.

John Ambrose Fleming (1849-1945) – John Ambrose Fleming was

an electronics pioneer who invented the oscillation valve, or
vacuum tube, a device that would help make radios, televisions, telephones
and even early electronic computers possible. A brilliant innovator, Fleming
was particularly adept at solving technical problems, and at various times in
his life he was closely acquainted with James Clerk Maxwell, Thomas
Edison and Guglielmo Marconi. He taught at University College, London,
for many years and is often credited with devising the right-hand rule to
help his students easily determine the directional relationships between a
current, its magnetic field and electromotive force.

Luigi Galvani (1737-1798) – Luigi Galvani was a pioneer in the field

of electrophysiology, the branch of science concerned with electrical
phenomena in the body. His experiments with dissected frogs and electrical
charges led him to suggest the existence of a previously unknown type of
electricity, which he dubbedanimal electricity. Galvani’s explanation of his
experimental findings was controversial and inspired Alessandro Volta to
develop an alternate viewpoint as well as to invent the voltaic pile.

Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1853) – Although he is best known as

one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, Carl Friedrich Gauss
was also a pioneer in the study of magnetism and electricity. To facilitate
an extensive survey of terrestrial magnetism, he invented an early type
of magnetometer, which is a device capable of measuring the direction
and strength of a magnetic field. Gauss also developed a consistent
system of magnetic units and with Wilhelm Weber built one of the first
electromagnetic telegraphs. Gauss’s laws describing magnetic and electric
fluxes served as part of the foundation upon which James Clerk Maxwell
developed his famous equations and electromagnetic theory.
 Murray Gell-Mann (1929-Present) – Murray Gell-Mann is a
theoretical physicist who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1969 for
his contributions to elementary particle physics. He is particularly well
known for his role in bringing organization into the world of subatomic
particles, which before his work seemed to be verging on chaos, and for
developing the concept of quarks. In the latter part of his career his focus
has shifted from the most basic aspects of nature to complex adaptive
systems, which he currently explores at the Santa Fe Institute.

William Gilbert (1544-1603) – William Gilbert was an English

physician and natural philosopher who wrote a six-volume treatise
that compiled all of the information regarding magnetism and electricity
known at the time. Entitled De Magnete, Magneticisque Corporibus, et
de Magno Magnete Tellure (On the Magnet, Magnetic Bodies, and the
Great Magnet of the Earth), the work included descriptions of many of
Gilbert’s own experiments and the conclusions he drew from them, as well
as data that had been previously obtained by others. In this opus, Gilbert
established much of the basic terminology still employed in the field of
electromagnetics, including electricity, electric attraction and force and
magnetic pole.

Joseph Henry (1797-1878) – Joseph Henry was an American

scientist who pioneered the construction of B, practical
electromagnets and built one of the first electromagnetic motors. During his
experiments with electromagnetism, Henry discovered the property
of inductance in electrical circuits, which was first recognized at about the
same time in England by Michael Faraday, who was the first to publish on
the subject. In honor of Henry, the SI unit of inductance bears his name.
One henry equals the inductance of a circuit with an induced voltage of
one volt and an inducing current that changes one ampere per second.
 Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894) – The discovery of radio waves, which
was widely seen as confirmation of James Clerk Maxwell’s
electromagnetic theory and paved the way for numerous advances in
communication technology, was made by German physicist Heinrich Hertz.
In the late 1880s, Hertz carried out a comprehensive study of the waves to
develop an understanding of their behavior. During the investigation he
found that radio waves travel in straight lines and can be focused,
diffracted, refracted and polarized.

Karl Jansky (1905-1950) – Karl Jansky, who discovered

extraterrestrial radio waves while investigating possible sources of
interference in shortwave radio communications across the Atlantic for Bell
Laboratories, is often known as the father of radio astronomy. Following his
discovery, Jansky remained at Bell and there continued to contribute to
improved radio communications, though he never had the opportunity to
further investigate the radio waves that he had been the first to detect. The
General Assembly of the International Astronomer's Union adopted
the janskyas a unit of measurement for radio wave intensity as a tribute to
him.

James Joule (1818-1889) – James Prescott Joule experimented

with engines, electricity and heat throughout his life. Joule’s findings
resulted in his development of the mechanical theory of heat and Joule’s
law, which quantitatively describes the rate at which heat energy is
produced from electric energy by the resistance in a circuit. Initially many
19th century scientists were skeptical of Joule’s work, but his efforts proved
fundamental to the modern understanding of thermodynamics.

William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (1824-1907) – William Thomson,

known as Lord Kelvin, was one of the most eminent scientists of the
nineteenth century and is best known today for inventing the international
system of absolute temperature that bears his name. He made
contributions to an array of different fields, including electricity, magnetism,
thermodynamics, hydrodynamics, geophysics and telegraphy, publishing
more than 650 papers during his lifetime. Thomson was also an extremely
skilled engineer who patented around 70 inventions and was involved
heavily in the laying of the first transatlantic telegraph cable.

Jack Kilby (1923-2005) – The integrated circuit fueled the rise of

microelectronics in the latter half of the twentieth century and paved
the way for the Information Age. An American engineer, Jack Kilby,
invented the integrated circuit in 1958, shortly after he began working at
Texas Instruments. The magnitude of the invention’s importance is
reflected in the fact that in 2000, Kilby shared the Nobel Prize in Physics,
an award that has traditionally been bestowed for theoretical, rather than
applied, work.

Klaus von Klitzing (1943-Present) – Klaus von Klitzing is a Nobel

laureate who won the prestigious award in 1985 for his discovery of
the quantized Hall effect, sometimes referred to as the quantum Hall
effect. Von Klitzing’s discovery resulted from his work exploring a
phenomenon observed more than a century earlier by American physicist
Edwin Hall. As Hall found, when a magnetic field is applied at a right angle
to a thin layer of conducting or semiconducting material with an electrical
current flowing through it, a transverse voltage (the Hall effect) develops
across the material. By concentrating on two-dimensional systems
maintained near absolute zero and exposed to extremely B magnetic fields,
von Klitzing demonstrated that the Hall effect is not a continuous
phenomenon, but rather occurs in discrete steps with a surprising amount
of precision.

Paul Lauterbur (1929-2007) – Chemist Paul Lauterbur pioneered

the use of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) for medical imaging.
He developed a technique, now known as magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI), in the early 1970s that involves the introduction of gradients in the
magnetic field employed for NMR and analysis of the data obtained to
produce two-dimensional images of organs and soft tissues. The non-
invasive technique was later improved for practical application by Peter
Mansfield, an English physicist. Lauterbur and Mansfield shared the Nobel
Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2003 for their work with MRI, now widely
used.

Siegmund Loewe (1885-1962) – Siegmund Loewe was a German

engineer and businessman that developed vacuum tube forerunners
of the modern integrated circuit. He pioneered both radio and television
broadcasting, and the company he established with his brother, David
Loewe, in 1923 was the foundation of today’s Loewe AG, a corporation that
continues to be a leader in the consumer electronics industry.

Theodore Maiman (1927-Present) – Theodore Maiman built the

world's first operable laser, which utilized a small synthetic rod with
silvered ends to produce a narrow beam of monochromatic light with a
wavelength of approximately 694 nanometers. Ironically, Maiman’s first
paper announcing this momentous achievement, which many other
scientists had been racing to complete themselves, was rejected
by Physical Review Letters. Since then, however, lasers have come to be
widely employed for many purposes, including surgery, welding, special
effects, barcode scanners, fiber optics, teeth whitening and reading CDs
and DVDs.

James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) – James Clerk Maxwell was one

of the most influential scientists of the nineteenth century. His
theoretical work on electromagnetism and light largely determined the
direction that physics would take in the early twentieth century. Indeed,
according to Albert Einstein, "One scientific epoch ended and another
began with James Clerk Maxwell."

Walther Meissner (1882-1974) – Walther Meissner discovered while

working with Robert Ochsenfeld that superconductors expel relatively
weak magnetic fields from their interior and are Bly diamagnetic. This
phenomenon, commonly known as theMeissner effect or the Meissner-
Ochsenfeld effect, is related to the generation of screening currents along
the surface of the superconductor that are able to cancel out the applied
magnetic field. Following this discovery, Meissner was offered and
accepted the technical physics chair at the Münich Institute of Technology
in 1934.

Robert Millikan (1868-1953) – Robert Andrews Millikan was a

prominent American physicist who made lasting contributions to both
pure science and science education. He is particularly well known for his
highly accurate determination of the charge of an electron via his
classic oil-drop experiment, a feat that along with his work on the
photoelectric effect garnered him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1923.
Interestingly, Millikan’s investigational achievements promoted the general
acceptance of both Niels Bohr's quantum theory of the atom and Albert
Einstein’s photoelectric equation, an important step precipitating their
recognition by the Nobel Foundation in 1922 and 1921, respectively, and,
more importantly, placing modern physics on a firm foundation.

Karl Alexander Müller (1927-Present) – In their search for new

superconductors, Swiss theoretical physicist Karl Alexander Müller
and his young colleague, J. Georg Bednorz, abandoned the metal alloys
typically used in superconductivity research in favor of a class of oxides
known as perovskites. The unusual direction of their work resulted in an
important breakthrough in 1986 — superconductivity at a higher
temperature than ever achieved before. When Müller and Bednorz
announced their discovery, it caused such a stir in the scientific community
that soon laboratories around the globe were experimenting with ceramic
perovskites in hopes of attaining even higher superconducting
temperatures.

Hans Christian Ørsted (1777-1851) – A discovery by Hans Christian

Ørsted forever changed the way scientists think about electricity and
magnetism. While preparing to perform an experiment during a lecture at
the University of Copenhagen, he found that the magnetized needle of a
compass was deflected whenever the electric current through a voltaic pile
(an early form of the battery) was started or stopped. This surprising
occurrence was solid evidence that electricity and magnetism are related
phenomena.

Georg Ohm (1789-1854) – Georg Simon Ohm had humble roots and
struggled financially throughout most of his life, but the German
physicist is well known today for his formulation of a law, termed Ohm’s
law, describing the mathematical relationship between electrical current,
resistance and voltage. Ohm’s law states that a steady current (I) flowing
through a material of a given resistance is directly proportional to the
applied voltage (V) and indirectly proportional to the resistance (R).

Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (1853-1926) – Heike Kamerlingh Onnes

was a Dutch physicist who first observed the phenomenon
of superconductivity while carrying out pioneering work in the field
of cryogenics. An important step on the way to this discovery was his
success in producing liquid helium, a feat that enabled scientists to achieve
colder experimental conditions than previously possible. Kamerlingh Onnes
won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1913 for his work with low temperatures
that led to the liquefying of helium.

Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958) – Austrian-born scientist Wolfgang

Ernst Pauli made numerous important contributions to twentieth-
century theoretical physics, including explaining the Zeeman effect, first
postulating the existence of the neutrino, and developing what has come to
be known as the Pauli exclusion principle. A cornerstone of the modern
understanding of matter, the exclusion principle garnered Pauli the Nobel
Prize in Physics in 1945. According to the principle, no two electrons in an
atom can share all four quantum numbers at the same time.

Edward Purcell (1912-1997) – Edward Mills Purcell was an

American physicist who received half of the 1952 Nobel Prize for
Physics with for his development of a new method of ascertaining the
magnetic properties of atomic nuclei. Known asnuclear magnetic
resonance absorption, the method arose from the application of radar
theory to the magnetic fields of atoms and was a significant advance over
the magnetic resonance detection technique developed earlier by Isidor
Rabi. Felix Bloch, with whom Purcell shared the Nobel Prize, independently
made the same advance.

Isidor Isaac Rabi (1898-1988) – Isidor Isaac Rabi won the Nobel
Prize in Physics in 1944 for his development of a technique for
measuring the magnetic characteristics of atomic nuclei. Rabi’s technique
was based on the resonance principle first described by Irish physicist
Joseph Larmor and it enabled more precise measurements of nuclear
magnetic moments than had been previously possible. Rabi’s method was
later independently improved upon by physicists Edward Purcell and Felix
Bloch, whose work on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) garnered them
the 1952 Nobel Prize in Physics and laid the foundations for magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI).

Heinrich Rohrer (1933-Present) – Swiss physicist Heinrich Rohrer

co-invented the scanning tunneling microscope (STM), a non-
optical instrument that allows the observation of individual atoms in three
dimensions, with Gerd Binnig. The achievement garnered the pair half of
the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1986. The Royal Swedish Academy of
Sciences bestowed the other half of the prestigious award to Ernst Ruska
for the invention of the electron microscope. The fact that the STM was a
mere five years old when Binnig and Rohrer won the Nobel Prize (Ruska
had invented his device back in the 1930s) is testament to the
groundbreaking nature of the invention and the scientific community’s
understanding of its tremendous import.

John Robert Schrieffer (1931-Present) – While still in graduate

school, John Robert Schrieffer developed with John Bardeen and
Leon Cooper a theoretical explanation of superconductivity that garnered
the trio the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1972. The BCS theory (the acronym
formed from the first letters of its creators’ surnames) applies specifically to
low temperature superconductors. Schrieffer, however, has also been
involved in research focusing on developing an equally successful theory of
high temperature superconductivity.

Julian Schwinger (1918-1994) – Theoretical physicist Julian

Schwinger used the mathematical process of renormalization to rid
the quantum field theory developed by Paul Dirac of serious incongruities
with experimental observations that had nearly prompted the scientific
community to abandon it. For this achievement, which firmly established
quantum electrodynamics (QED) as an accurate predictor of the
interactions of charged particles, Schwinger won the Nobel Prize in Physics
in 1965. Physicists Richard Feynman and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, who
similarly refined QED theory at about the same time as Schwinger, shared
the award with him that year.

Claude Shannon (1916-2001) – Claude Shannon was a

mathematician and electrical engineer whose work underlies
modern information theory and helped instigate the digital revolution. He
was the first person to recognize how Boolean algebra could be used to
great advantage in the relay circuitry found in telephone routing switches,
paving the way for its use in all digital circuitry and laying the groundwork
for the modern computer and other electronic devices. Shannon also
successfully applied mathematical theory to a number of other scientific
disciplines, resulting in advances in game theory, artificial intelligence and
theoretical genetics.

William Shockley (1910-1989) – William Bradford Shockley was

head of the solid-state physics team at Bell Labs that developed the
first point-contact transistor, which he quickly followed up with the
invention of the more advanced junction transistor. He shared the 1956
Nobel Prize in Physics with John Bardeen and Walter Brattain for his work
on these projects. When Shockley left Bell Labs to establish his own
company, he set up shop near Palo Alto, California. His research there
focused on developing silicon-based semiconductor devices, making him
the first to introduce silicon into the area now known as Silicon Valley.

Werner von Siemens (1816-1892) – In 1866, the research of

Werner von Siemens would lead to his discovery of the dynamo
electric principle that paved the way for the large-scale generation of
electricity through mechanical means. He reported this discovery in a paper
entitled “On the conversion of mechanical energy into electric current
without the use of permanent magnets” to the Berlin Academy of
Sciences in early 1867. Though scientists in other countries developed the
self-exciting electric generator, or dynamo, at about the same time, von
Siemens appears to be the first to truly realize its significance to society.
The telegraph company he co-owned, Siemens & Halske, quickly began
commercial production of dynamos, eventually followed by cables, electric
lighting, telephones and other electrical devices. The company he founded
is now the Siemens AG electronics conglomerate.

Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) – Awarded more than 100 patents over

the course of his lifetime, Nikola Tesla was a man of considerable
genius and vision. He was reportedly born at exactly midnight during an
electrical storm, an intriguing beginning for a man who would one day help
light up all of America with the alternating current (AC) electric power
systems he invented. In addition to his AC system, which allowed more
efficient and safer power transmission over long distances than the direct
current (DC) systems preferred by Thomas Edison, Tesla pioneered radio
technology, experimented with X-rays, invented the first boat controlled
remotely, and was a great proponent of wireless communication.

Joseph John Thomson (1856-1940) – Joseph John Thomson,

better known as J. J. Thomson, was a British physicist who first
theorized and offered experimental evidence that the atom was a divisible
entity rather than the basic unit of matter, as was widely believed at the
time. A series of experiments with cathode rays he carried out near the end
of the 19th century led to his discovery of the electron, a negatively
charged atomic particle with very little mass. Thomson received the Nobel
Prize in Physics in 1906 for his work exploring the electrical conductivity of
various gases.

Sin-Itiro Tomonaga (1906-1979) – Japanese theoretical physicist

Sin-Itiro Tomonaga resolved key problems with the theory of
quantum electrodynamics (QED) developed by Paul Dirac in the late 1920s
through the use of a mathematical technique he referred to
as renormalization. Tomonaga’s work did not change the basic physical
foundation of Dirac’s theory, which described the relationships between
electrically charged particles and the electromagnetic field, but rather
refined QED in order to make it consistent with the theory of special
relativity and to show that the theory agrees quantitatively with results
obtained experimentally to a great degree of accuracy. In 1965, Tomonaga
received a portion of the Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to
quantum electrodynamics.

Alessandro Volta (1745-1827) – Alessandro Volta was an Italian

scientist whose skepticism of Luigi Galvani’s theory of animal
electricity led him to propose that an electrical current is generated by
contact between different metals. Volta’s theoretical and experimental work
in this area resulted in his construction of the first battery. Known as
the voltaic pile, Volta’s battery made available for the first time a
sustainable source of electrical current. Using the innovative apparatus, a
number of his contemporaries, such as William Nicholson and Sir Humphry
Davy, made important scientific advances in the early 19th century.

James Watt (1736-1819) – The Scottish instrument maker and

inventor James Watt had a tremendous impact on the shape of
modern society. His improvements to the steam engine were a significant
factor in the Industrial Revolution, and when the Watt engine was paired
with Thomas Edison’s electrical generator in the late nineteenth century,
the generation of electricity on a large scale was possible for the first time.
Soon after, the streets of New York and other cities were illuminated with
electric lamps.
 Wilhelm Weber (1804-1891) – Researching magnetism with the
great mathematician and astronomer Karl Friedrich Gauss in the
1830s, German physicist Wilhelm Weber developed and enhanced a
variety of devices for sensitively detecting and measuring magnetic fields
and electrical currents. Included among these devices was
the electrodynamometer, which was capable of measuring electric
current, voltage or power through the interaction of the magnetic fields of
two coils. Utilizing this device, Weber experimentally validated André-Marie
Ampère’s force law. Weber began developing a similar system of electric
units around 1840 after Gauss developed a system of magnetic units
expressed in terms of length, mass and time in the early 1830s.

Generators and Motors

Basic Magnetic Field

Magnets are pieces of metal that have the ability to attract other
metals. Every magnet has two poles: a north and a south. Much
like electrical charges, two similar magnetic poles repel each
other; while opposite magnetic poles attract each other. Magnets
have a continuous force around them that is known as a magnetic
field. This field enables them to attract other metals. Figure 1
illustrates this force using bar and horseshoe magnets.
The shape of the magnet dictates the path the lines of force will
take. Notice that the force in Figure 1 is made up of several lines
traveling in a specific direction. It can be concluded that the lines
travel from the magnet's north pole to its south. These lines of
force are often called the magnetic flux. If the bar magnet is now
bent to form a horseshoe magnet, the north and south pole are
now across from each other. Notice in the horseshoe magnet how
the lines of force are now straight, and that they travel from the
north pole to the south. It will be revealed how generators and
motors use these lines of force to generate electricity, as well as
mechanical motion.

Magnetic Fields Around Conductors

When a current flows through a conductor, a magnetic field

surrounds the conductor. As current flow increases, so does the
number of lines of force in the magnetic field (Figure 2).
The right hand rule helps demonstrate the relationship between
conductor current and the direction of force. Grasp a wire
conductor in the right hand, put your thumb on the wire pointing
upward, and wrap your four fingers around the wire. As long as
the thumb is in the direction that current flows through the wire,
the fingers curl around the wire in the direction of the magnetic
field. Figure 3 demonstrates the right hand rule.

Polarity of Coils Cutting Through Lines of Force

A conductor can be twisted into a coil, which efficiently produces

current when cutting the lines of force in a magnetic field. The
more turns in this coil, the stronger the magnetic field.
Furthermore, if the coil is wrapped around a piece of iron, the
current becomes even stronger.

When needing to discover which poles are which in a conductor, it

is important to notice which way the coils turn in order to apply the
right hand rule. In addition, one should always look at which side
of the coil is attached to the positive terminal of a power source
such as a battery, and which side is attached to the negative.
Figure 4 illustrates four different scenarios and the appropriate
poles.
As a conductor cuts across the lines of force in a magnetic field, it
generates a current. This method of inducing a current is called
induction. There are three rules for induction:

1. When a conductor cuts through lines of force, it induces an

electromotive force (EMF), or voltage.
2. Either the magnetic field or the conductor needs to be
moving for this to happen.
3. If the direction of the cutting across the magnetic field
changes, the direction of the induced EMF also changes.

Accordingly, Faraday's law states that induced voltage can be

determined by the number of turns in a coil, and how fast the coil
cuts through a magnetic field. Therefore, the more turns in a coil
or the stronger the magnetic field, the more voltage induced.

In addition, current changes direction depending on which way it

cuts across a magnetic field. As depicted in Figure 5, a coil cutting
through a basic magnetic field in a clockwise direction will at first
result in a current with positive polarity, but as it cuts across the
same field in the opposite direction during the second half of its
turn, the polarity becomes negative.
When current switches from positive to negative repeatedly, it is
called alternating current, or A.C. Alternating current will be
explained in more detail later.

DC Current

When a current is direct (D.C.) rather than alternating (A.C.), the

polarity of that current never changes direction. Usually, when a
coil turns in a clockwise direction, the first 180 degrees of the turn
result in the induced current going in a positive direction. As
mentioned above, however, the second 180 degrees result in the
induced current going in a negative direction. In direct current, the
current always travels in a positive direction. How is this possible?
When inducing direct current, some mechanism must be
employed to make sure the coils only cut through the magnetic
field in one direction, or that the circuit only uses current from the
coil cutting in that one direction. Devices such as D.C. generators
employ a mechanism called a commutator to keep current flowing
in one direction. Figure 6 shows direct current in the form of a
sine wave. Notice that the current never has negative polarity,
and is therefore always flowing in a positive direction.
Direct Current Generators

A generator is a device that turns rotary mechanical energy into

electrical energy.

Simple D.C. generators contain several parts, including an

armature (or rotor), a commutator, brushes, and field winding. A
variety of sources can supply mechanical energy to the D.C.
generator to turn its armature. The commutator changes the
alternating current (A.C.) into direct current as it flows through the
armature.

The stationary brushes, which are graphite connectors on the

generator, form contact with opposite parts of the commutator. As
the armature coil turns, it cuts across the magnetic field, and
current is induced. At the first half turn of the armature coil
(clockwise direction), the contacts between commutator and
brushes are reversed, or to put it another way, the first brush now
contacts the opposite segment that it was touching during the first
half turn while the second brush contacts the segment opposite
the one it touched on the first half turn. By doing this, the brushes
keep current going in one direction, and deliver it to and from its
destination.

Direct Current Motors

Motors change electric energy into mechanical energy. Direct

current motors and generators are constructed very similarly.
They function almost oppositely at first because a generator
creates voltage when conductors cut across the lines of force in a
magnetic field, while motors result in torque-- a turning effort of
mechanical rotation. Simple motors have a flat coil that carries
current that rotates in a magnetic field. The motor acts as a
generator since after starting, it produces an opposing current by
rotating in a magnetic field, which in turn results in physical
motion.

This is accomplished as a conductor is passed through a

magnetic field, then the opposing fields repel each other to cause
physical motion. The left hand rule can be used to explain the way
a simple motor works (Figure 9). The pointer finger points in the
direction of the magnetic field, the middle finger points in the
direction of the current, and the thumb shows which way the
conductor will be forced to move.

A self-excited motor produces its own field excitation. A shunt

motor has its field in parallel with the armature circuit, and a
series motor is when the field is in a series with the armature.

When the conductor is bent into a coil, the physical motion

performs an up and down cycle. The more bends in a coil, the
less pulsating the movement will be. This physical movement is
called torque, and can be measured in the equation:

T = kt Θ ia

T = torque

kt = constant depending on physical dimension of motor

Θ = total number of lines of flux entering the armature from one N

pole

ia = armature current

Alternating Current
Much like the process of producing direct current, the process of
producing an alternating current requires a conductor loop
spinning in a magnetic field. As a matter of fact, the process is the
same for both types of current, except that the alternating current
is never changed into direct current through the use of a
commutator. The conductor loop, or coil, cuts through lines of
force in a magnetic field to induce A.C. voltage at its terminals.
Each complete turn of the loop is called a "cycle." The alternating
current wave is pictured in Figure 10.

Notice what segment of the wave consists of one cycle, and

which is the part of the wave from point A to the next point A. If
we divide the wave into four equal parts, the divisions happen at
points A, B, C, and D. We can read the turn of the coil and how it
relates to the wave produced. From A to B is the first quarter turn
of the coil, from B to C is the second quarter turn, from C to D is
the third quarter turn, and from D to A is the final quarter turn.

It is important to note that degree markings on a horizontal axis

refer to electrical degrees and are not geometric. The example
above is for a single pole generator. However, if this were a
double pole generator, then 1 cycle would happen at each 180
degrees rather than 360 degrees, and so on.

Alternating Current Generator

An alternating current generator, or alternator, produces an

alternating current, which means the polarity of the current
changes direction repeatedly. This type of generator requires a
coil to cut across a magnetic field, and is attached to two slip rings
connected to brushes. The brushes deliver the current to and
from the load destination, thus completing the circuit.

During the first half turn, the coil cuts across the field near the
magnet's north pole. Electrons go up the wire, and the lower slip
ring becomes positively charged. When the coil cuts near the
south pole of the wire during the second half turn, the lower slip
ring becomes negatively charged, and electrons move down the
wire. The faster the coil turns, the faster the electrons move, or to
put it another way, the more frequency is increased, or the more
hertz per second, the stronger the current.

Alternating Current Motor

An alternating current motor is similar to the direct current motor

except for a few characteristics. Instead of the rotor field reversing
every half turn, the stator field reverses every half turn.
There are several different types of alternating current motors.
The most common type is the polyphase induction motor, which
contain a stator and a rotor, where the stator is attached to the
A.C. supply. When the stator winding becomes energized, a
rotating magnetic field is created. An EMF is induced as the field
goes across the inductors and current flows through them. Torque
is therefore exerted on the rotor conductors carrying current in the
stator.