Lines and Waves

Written by Robert D. Friedel

It was 150 years ago that the English scientist Michael Faraday discovered that he could generate electricity with magnets - the phenomenon we call electromagnetic induction. In the same year that Faraday made this discovery, there was born in Scotland the man whose brilliant mathematical interpretation of Faraday's ideas was to become the foundation of our modern concepts of electricity, magnetism and light, James Clerk Maxwell. This exhibit celebrates the life and work of these two men and seeks to highlight their contributions to our understanding of electricity and our ability to make electricity work for us through engineering.

This exhibit was sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and produced by the IEEE History Center. It is hoped that exhibits such as this one will foster among both electrical engineers and the general public an appreciation for the diversity an richness of the heritage of electrical engineering.

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Table of Contents

• Faraday Beginnings
• Scientist and Public Figure
• Electricity and Magnetism
• Electrochemistry
• The Search for Relationships
• The Great Experimentalist
• Interpretations and Application
• Appreciation Lines and Fields
• Application Maxwell Beginnings
• Gentleman and Scholar
• Saturn's Rings
• Maxwell at Work
• Electricity: Science and Engineering
• Maxwell's Equations
• Interpreting Faraday
• Electricity and Light
• Appreciation
• Confirmation
• Application