History of electromagnetic theory

The development of scientific accounts of electricity and magnetism, culminating in their unification as electromagnetism and later extensions to light and fields.

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William Gilbert: English physician and natural philosopher whose experiments distinguished magnetism from static electricity. His 1600 work helped establish experimental inquiry into magnetic and electrical phenomena.
Oersted's experiment: Hans Christian Ørsted's 1820 demonstration that an electric current deflects a magnetic compass needle. It directly connected electric current with magnetic action.
Michael Faraday: English experimental scientist whose discoveries included electromagnetic induction and the concept of field lines. His experiments and field-based thinking shaped the theory Maxwell later formalized.
Electromagnetic spectrum: The full range of electromagnetic radiation, ordered by frequency or wavelength. Maxwell's theory placed visible light within a broader family of predicted and discovered radiation.
Action at a distance: A model in which objects exert forces on one another without a mediating field or local interaction. Field theory replaced this picture with local interactions transmitted through space.
Electrostatics: The study of electric charges at rest and the forces and fields they produce. Early electrical experiments focused on attraction and repulsion between charged objects.
Ampère's force law: A mathematical law describing the magnetic force between current-carrying conductors. André-Marie Ampère developed a quantitative account of the effects revealed by Ørsted.
James Clerk Maxwell: Scottish physicist who formulated the classical equations of electromagnetism. His synthesis unified earlier electrical and magnetic laws and predicted electromagnetic waves.
Radio: The transmission and reception of information using electromagnetic waves. Hertz's laboratory waves became the basis for practical wireless communication.
Aether theories: Historical theories proposing a medium that carries light or electromagnetic waves through space. The search for a light-carrying medium shaped nineteenth-century interpretations of Maxwell's waves.