Joseph Henry

Joseph Henry
&
Inductance
Submitted by:
Artificio, Mercy Joy B.
Submitted to:
Engr. Joselito Flores Jr.
Joseph
Henry
Joseph Henry
Joseph Henry (December 17, 1797 May 13, 1878) was an American scientist who
served as the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Joseph was an American scientist
who
invented electromagnets. He was the secretary for the National Institute
for the Promotion of Science, a precursor of the Smithsonian
Institution. He was highly regarded during his lifetime. While
building electromagnets, Henry discovered the electromagnetic
phenomenon of self-inductance. He also discovered mutual inductance
independently of Michael Faraday, (1791-1867), though Faraday was
the first to make the discovery and publish his results. Henry
developed the electromagnet into a practical device. He invented
a precursor to the electric doorbell (specifically a bell that could
be rung at a distance via an electric wire, 1831) and electric
relay (1835). The SI unit of inductance, the henry, is named
in his honor. Henry's work on the electromagnetic relay was
the basis of the practical electrical telegraph, invented by
Samuel F. B. Morse and Sir Charles Wheatstone, separately.
Biography
Henry was born in Albany, New York to Scottish immigrants Ann Alexander Henry and
William Henry. His parents were poor, and Henry's father died while he was still young. For the
rest of his childhood, Henry lived with his grandmother in Galway, New York. He attended a
school which would later be named the "Joseph Henry Elementary School" in his honor. After
school, he worked at a general store, and at the age of thirteen became an apprentice watchmaker
and silversmith. Joseph's first love was theater and he came close to becoming a professional
actor. His interest in science was sparked at the age of sixteen by a book of lectures on scientific
topics titled Popular Lectures on Experimental Philosophy. In 1819 he entered The Albany
Academy, where he was given free tuition. Even with free tuition he was so poor that he had to
support himself with teaching and private tutoring positions. He intended to go into medicine,
but in 1824 he was appointed an assistant engineer for the survey of the State road being
constructed between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. From then on, he was inspired to a career
in either civil or mechanical engineering.
Using his newly developed electromagnetic principle, Henry in

one of the first machines to use electromagnetism for motion. This was
ancestor of modern DC motor. It did not make use of rotating motion,
merely an electromagnet perched on a pole, rocking back and
rocking motion was caused by one of the two leads on both ends of
magnet rocker touching one of the two battery cells, causing a polarity
and rocking the opposite direction until the other two leads hit the other
1831 created
the earliest
but
was
forth. The
the
change,
battery.
This apparatus allowed Henry to recognize the

property of self inductance. British scientist Michael
Faraday also recognized this property around the same time.
Since Faraday published his results first, he became the
officially recognized discoverer of the phenomenon.
In 1848 Henry worked in conjunction with Professor Stephen Alexander to determine the
relative temperatures for different parts of the solar disk. They used a thermopile to determine
that sunspots were cooler than the surrounding regions. This work was shown to the astronomer
Angelo Secchi who extended it, but with some question as to whether Henry was given proper
credit for his earlier work.
In the fall of 2014 history author Jeremy T.K. Farley released "The Civil War Out My
Window: Diary of Mary Henry." The 262-page book featured the diary of Henry's daughter
Mary, from the years of 1855 to 1878. Throughout the diary, Henry is repeatedly mentioned by
his daughter, who showed a keen affection to her father.
Michael Faraday's great discovery in 1831 of electromagnetic induction was being
independently duplicated at about the same time by an American physicist Joseph Henry, but
Faraday was credited with the discovery because his results were published first. Henry became
famous, however, as the discoverer of the inductance (called self-inductance) of a coil and as the
developer of powerful electromagnets capable of lifting thousands of pounds of weight. He was
also America's foremost nineteenth-century physicist and the first secretary of the newly-formed
Smithsonian Institution.
Inductance
In electromagnetism and electronics, inductance is the property of an electrical

conductor by which a change in current flowing through it induces an electromotive force in both
the conductor itself and in any nearby conductors by mutual inductance.
These effects are derived from two fundamental observations of physics: a steady current
creates a steady magnetic field described by Oersted's law, and a time-varying magnetic field
induces an electromotive force in nearby conductors, which is described by Faraday's law of
induction. According to Lenz's law, a changing electric current through a circuit that contains
inductance induces a proportional voltage, which opposes the change in current (selfinductance). The varying field in this circuit may also induce an e.m.f. in neighboring circuits
(mutual inductance).
The term inductance was coined by Oliver Heaviside in 1886. It is customary to use the
symbol L for inductance, in honor of the physicist Heinrich Lenz. In the SI system the
measurement unit for inductance is the henry with the unit symbol H, named in honor of Joseph
Henry, who discovered inductance independently of, but not before, Faraday.

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Who discovered inductance?

What is inductance?

Joseph Henry

Using his newly developed electromagnetic principle, Henry in

This apparatus allowed Henry to recognize the

In electromagnetism and electronics, inductance is the property of an electrical

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