Download History of EM - Courses

History of Electromagnetics
Stuart A. Long
Department of Electrical
and Computer Engineering
University of Houston
Thales of Miletus – 600 BC
Oldest reference to any
“electrical” phenomenon
His teachings were passed
down orally until Aristotle
wrote them down in the form
of a lyrical poem
First person to have observed the attractive
properties of the mineral amber.
Rubbing an amber rod with rabbit fur caused small
bits of straw or feathers to be attracted toward it.
The Greek word for amber is “elektron”.
•No real science involved
•All knowledge was qualitative
•No quantitative formulas
“When you can measure what you are speaking
about and express it in numbers, you know
something about it. But when you cannot
measure it, and you cannot express it in numbers,
your when you cannot knowledge is of a meager
and unsatisfactory kind.”
Lord Kelvin
Benjamin Franklin – 1750
Charles de Coulomb – 1785
Alessandro Volta – 1800
Hans Christian Oersted – 1820
Andre Ampere – 1820
Michael Faraday-- 1831
James Clerk Maxwell – 1873
Heinrich Hertz – 1888