Michael Faraday (1791-1867), and James Maxwell (1831-1879)
Michael Faraday (1791-1867)
investigated the nature of electricity and magnetism, and its effect upon
light. He (correctly) thought that energy was to be found in the space
between the molecules, in dark matter (ether). In 1826 Samuel Heinrich Swabe of
Dessau in Germany
started a series of observations on sunspots, recording each group as it
traversed the Sun’s disk. Twelve years later he published his counts in
“Astronomische Nachtricten”. (Searching earlier records, an estimate was
made of maximum and minimum sunspot activity back to 1610[i]).
The Scotsman James Maxwell (1831-1879) showed that
electromagnetic waves moved at the speed of light, and could be explained by
dark matter (ether). His paper on lines of electromagnetic force was read to
the Cambridge philosophical society
in 1856. His field theory of electromagnetism was published in two parts in
1864. His theory of heat was published in 1877.