English

Electromagnetism in the Encyclopaedias

History and Philosophy of Physics 2023-06-13 v1

Abstract

The paper is based on a talk given to celebrate {\O}rsted's discovery of electromagnetism in 1820. It gives a brief account of {\O}rsted's life and work, before using the evidence of articles on electricity and magnetism in the Encyclopaedia Britannica to assess understanding of the connection between the two phenomena in the 20 years before {\O}rsted's discovery, and the immediate reception of it.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2306.06424,
  title  = {Electromagnetism in the Encyclopaedias},
  author = {Isobel Falconer},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2306.06424},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

12 pages. The newsletter that this appears in may sometime appear on the publisher's website https://www.iop.org/physics-community/special-interest-groups/history-physics-group

R2 v1 2026-06-28T11:01:54.881Z