ABSTRACT
The electromagnet made an effective electric motor feasible; accordingly for many years the electric motor was called the 'electromagnetic engine'. Henry, in 1831, described a simple electromagnetic beam engine; but Salvatore dal Negro, a priest and a Professor at the University of Padua, is usually credited with being the first to build an electric motor. The bicentenary of the birth of Michael Faraday, FRS, brought many tributes to a man of genius. The claim that Faraday invented the electric motor in 1821 can be considered; and dismissed for three reasons. First, Faraday's apparatus—using permanent magnets—could develop too little power to be of any use. Second, it is difficult to see how Faraday's apparatus could have been arranged, mechanically, to deliver its power. Third, it is wrong to assume that the rotary motion, demonstrated in Faraday's experiment, is the novel and essential feature of the first electric motors.
