Overview

Over the course of the nineteenth century the science of electricity and magnetism advanced from laboratory curiosity to a fully developed theory that would provide the basis for several major technologies. Essential to this development was the development of a mathematical apparatus to describe the behavior of fields, physical states characterized by a vector or scalar at every point in space. A critical initial step was provided in 1838 by George Green (1793-1841), then a self-taught amateur mathematician. A complete formulation of the behavior of electromagnetic fields was achieved over the next 35 years.

Background

While the ancient Greeks were familiar with both static electricity and permanent magnets, the nature of the two phenomena remained a subject of speculation until the...