Electromagnetism
Society has had an awareness of electricity and magnetism for centuries. Lightning, static electricity and magnetism are all natural phenomena, which have been studied and used by a broad diversity of ancient civilisations. Despite this, a united theory of electromagnetism is often attributed to developments during the British Industrial Revolution and the imperial influences of physics.
Electricity & Electronics
Mildred Dresselhaus - studied the electronic properties of nanomaterials
Esther M. Conwell -developed Conwell-Weisskopf theory
Hertha Ayrton - studied the hissing of electric arcs
Spectroscopy
George Edward Alcorn Jr. - invented X-ray spectrometers
C.V. Raman - discovered the Raman effect
The Origins of Electromagnetism
Much of modern electromagnetic theory is associated with the time period around industrial revolutions across the west, and while this is when magnetic and electrical theories were unified, it is important to remember the contributions of non-western physicists to these individual theories which would ultimately influence the development of electromagnetism. Electricity and magnetism were known all across the globe from prehistory due to lightning and static, and magnetic iron ores. Interestingly, some ancient civilisations associated static electricity and magnetism as related, due to their properties of generating attraction. This shows that electromagnetic theory may have some provenance in ancient world history rather than several millennia later in 19th century Europe as is currently interpreted.
Another interesting example of developments in electromagnetic theory long before the term was coined, is the understanding of compasses. As far as is known, compasses were first described in Europe by Alexander Neckam in 1187. But much like many other inventions, non-western countries had already discovered and described compasses before they ever reached Europe. The actual first written description of a compass — along with how they were believed to work, including navigation concepts such as distance between true north and the pole star which were not discovered in Europe for another four-hundred or so years — hails from the Song dynasty of China in 1088 by scientist Shen Kuo. Even more interestingly however, is that there have been recent suggestions that primitive compasses may have been used in Mesoamerica around two-thousand years before this in years prior to 1000 BCE. Geomagnetic lodestone ‘compasses’ have been discovered and dated to the Olmec civilisation of around this time.
Although of course all these different electrical and magnetic discoveries might not directly relate to electromagnetic theory in its contemporary form, it does demonstrate perfectly that this area of physics was not solely a western endeavour as it might first seem.
Imperialism & Slavery
Alongside the Industrial Revolution was the era known as the Age of Imperialism. During this era, Britain, France, and Germany (these were the primary countries, but definitely not the only) fought for imperial control over Africa and Central America to capitalise on natural and human ‘resources’: slaves. The Industrial Revolution required resources, no matter the cost.
One of the industries that saw the greatest impact of thermodynamics and electromagnetism was the textile industry. An invention known as the cotton gin had already been in use before the dynamo, but these continued advances into machine efficiency and manufacturing only increased the demand for cotton. Cotton was becoming more and more valuable to the textile industry thanks to physics, making it in turn more and more demanded. And where did this cotton come from? Slave plantations in West Indies British colonies. As demand grew, the number of slaves increased with their conditions decreasing. This is only one brief example of how science and engineering were almost immediately applied to imperialism. The hardware industry’s need for metals saw almost identical treatment of slaves across the African continent, alongside almost every other industry at the time that was influenced by scientific advancements.
Despite discussions in history classes being prevalent around the motivations behind developments, physics very rarely ever sees these. The motivation behind many scientists in imperial nations at the time was to increase production no matter the cost. Developments in science were inherently economic and political in this sense.
