
Oersted Compass Needle, 1828
- Made:
- 1828 in Charing Cross
- artist:
- Hans Christian Ørsted
- maker:
- Watkins & Hill and
- Watkins & Hill and





Ørsted's [Oersted] apparatus for showing the effect of an electric current on a magnetic needle, believed to have been supplied for £1-8-0 by Watkins and Hill, Charing Cross, Westminster, 1828.
Hans Christian Oersted was a Danish physicist and chemist who in 1820 discovered the relationship between electricity and magnetism. He found that a magnetised needle moved when brought near a wire in which current was flowing, and that the effect was increased if the wire was formed into a coil. The idea of using this phenomenon as a signalling system soon occurred to several experimenters. This instrument is believed to have been used at lecture demonstrations in London.
Details
- Category:
- Science Teaching
- Object Number:
- 1983-478
- Materials:
- brass, complete, copper, steel and wood (unidentified)
- Measurements:
-
undefined
undefined
- type:
- scientific instrument
- credit:
- Donated by University College London, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy