Untitled (Homopolar Motor)
Cooper Campbell (after Michael Faraday)
1822, 2016, 2017 (Destroyed 2019)
Electronics, Glass, Mercury, Neodynium Magnet, Plexiglass
Cooper Campbell (after Michael Faraday)
1822, 2016, 2017 (Destroyed 2019)
Electronics, Glass, Mercury, Neodynium Magnet, Plexiglass

Faraday’s Motor is the first example of a man-made device that generates motion via the use of electricity. An electrode (E1) is draped over the edge of a vessel into a pool of mercury with a second electrode (E2) descending into the pool from above, completing a circuit through the conductive medium (Mercury). A stationary magnetic point is placed at the center of the pool. As a current is fed through the circuit, E2 begins to move, shoved along by the electromagnetic field generated by the current.