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

    Faraday’s Motor (Homopolar 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 container holding mercury. A second electrode (E2) drapes down into the mercury from above: thereby completing a circuit through the conductive 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.