Michael Faraday (1791-1867), an English chemist and physicist, was probably the greatest experimentalist who ever lived.

Born near London, Faraday realized his boyhood dream by working with the great chemist Sir Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution, where he worked for 54 years. He made several contributions in all areas of physical science and coined such words as electrolysis, anode, and cathode. His discovery of electromagnetic induction in 1831 was a major breakthrough in engineering because it provided a way of generating electricity. The electric motor and generator operate on this principle. The unit of capacitance, the farad, was named in his honor.

Joseph Henry (1797-1878), an American physicist, discovered inductance and constructed an electric motor.

Born in Albany, New York, Henry graduated from Albany Academy and taught philosophy at Princeton University from 1832 to 1846. He was the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. He conducted several experiments on electromagnetism and developed powerful electromagnets that could lift objects weighing thousands of pounds. Interestingly, Joseph Henry discovered electromagnetic induction before Faraday but failed to publish his findings. The unit of inductance, the henry, was named after him.