COMM 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: James Clerk Maxwell, Wireless Telegraphy, Oliver Lodge
4 Dec 2018
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When telegraph lines began stretching across continents, scientists tried to explain occasional fluctuations in electrical current that seemed to be associated with aurora borealis and solar flares. Particularly mysterious events occurred on sept 2, 1859 when the sky filled with auroras of writhing purple and red colors unlike anything before. Around the world, telegraph systems crashed, machines burst into flames, and electric shocks rendered operators unconscious. Scientists wondered how electricity could be related to magnetism, and how the great auroras of 1859 could create electricity in telegraph wires. One piece of the puzzle was solved a few years later when james clerk. Maxwell, a british mathematician, published a paper describing the electric and magnetic forces that could be carried through space without wires. Another part of the puzzle involved thomas edison"s observations that when one electrical circuit was near a similar circuit, it mimics the other without touching it.
