In the mid-1800s, Newtonian mechanics was joined by another great advance. The English experimenter Michael Faraday (1791–1867), the self-taught son of a blacksmith, discovered the properties of electrical and magnetic fields. He showed that an electric current produced magnetism, and then he showed that a changing magnetic field could produce an electric current. When a magnet is moved near a wire loop, or vice versa, an electric current is produced.
