But I must here introduce a few facts concerning the contributions to electric theory and practice of the great French mathematician and physicist, André Marie Ampère (1775-1836). His discoveries in electrodynamics aided greatly in laying a broad foundation for this science. Very notable was the influence exercised by Ampère on the development of electrodynamics. And it was he who first clearly established the fact that magnetic action is a peculiar form of electromotive action, and that, in phenomena of this class, “action and reaction are equal and opposite.” From these considerations it was natural for him to suppose that magnetism might be made to produce electricity, as it had already been shown that electricity might be made to imitate all the effects of magnetism. Numerous attempts were made to effect this predicted result, but for some years all such efforts proved to be fruitless. Meanwhile the French physicist and astronomer, François Arago (1785-1853), was also conducting experiments with the object of producing electricity by magnetism. One of his experiments actually involved the effect sought, but it was not clearly recognized. Arago observed that the rapid revolution of a conducting plate in the neighborhood of a magnet gave rise to a force acting on the magnet. But it was not recognized by either Arago or other physicists of the day that the forces involved were electric currents—produced by the rapidly revolving conducting plate. Faraday, in 1831, after several years of preoccupation with other problems, returned to his task of discovering electrodynamical induction, begun in 1825. After a number of fruitless efforts, he was finally rewarded with success, but not in the form which had been anticipated. It was observed that at the precise time of making or breaking the contact which closed the galvanic circuit, a momentary effect was induced in a neighboring wire, which, however, disappeared instantly.[9] Faraday then discovered that a similar effect could be induced merely by moving the wire nearer to or farther away from the closed circuit—instead of suddenly making or breaking the contact of the “inducing circuit”. Later he found that the effects were increased by the proximity of soft iron, and that when the soft iron was affected by an ordinary magnet instead of the voltaic wire, the same effect still recurred. The momentary electric current was produced either by moving the magnet or by moving the wire with reference to the magnet. Finally, it was found that the earth itself might be substituted for a magnet, not only in this experiment but also in others. Mere motion of a wire, under proper conditions, produced the effect.