19th Century Pioneer

Hans Christian Oersted (1777 – 1851).  Denmark

The unit of measure for magnetic field strength, the Oersted, was named in his honor.

During the preparation for a lecture that he presented in 1820, Professor Oersted of the University of Copenhagen noticed that a compass needle was deflected by a wire carrying current from a voltaic cell.  He performed the experiment in the lecture and included the compass to show the effect of the wire carrying current .  He had discovered that magnetism and electricity were related to each other.  Further experiments determined that a live wire is also deflected by a magnetic field.  His discovery and later findings were fundamental in furnishing others information for the future development of electric motors and generators.