Following in the footsteps of Ben Franklin and other early scientists, Michael Faraday studied the nature of electricity. Born on September 22, 1791, this famous English physicist and chemist is best remembered for his understanding of electromagnetism. Once Faraday discovered that electricity could be made by moving a magnet inside a wire coil, he was able to build the first electric motor. He later built the first generator and transformer. He introduced several words that we still use today to discuss electricity: ion, electrode, cathode, and anode.
While Joseph Henry's first discovery was that the power of a magnet could be immensely strengthened by winding it with insulated wire. He was the first person to make a magnet that could lift thirty-five hundred pounds of weight. Joseph Henry showed the difference between "quantity" magnets composed of short lengths of wire connected in parallel and excited by a few large cells; and "intensity" magnets wound with a single long wire and excited by a battery composed of cells in series. This was an original discovery, greatly increasing both the immediate usefulness of the magnet and its possibilities for future experiments though Michael Faraday was the first published the results of his experiment.
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