ABSTRACT
In 1846, Michael Faraday discovered that by placing a block of heavy lead glass between the poles of an electromagnet and passing a linearly polarized beam through the block in the direction of the lines of force, the plane of polarization of the linearly polarized beam was rotated by the magnetic medium; this is called the Faraday effect. He established that there was a link between electromagnetism and light. It was this discovery that stimulated Maxwell to begin to think of the relation between the electromagnetic field and the optical field.
