History of Electromagnets The first recorded discovery of the relation between electricity and magnetism occurred in 1820, when Danish scientist Hans Christian Oersted noticed that the needle on his compass pointed away from magnetic north when a nearby battery was turned on. This deflection convinced him that magnetic fields radiate from all sides of a wire carrying an electric current, just as light and heat do . Shortly thereafter, he published his findings, showing mathematically that an electric current produces a magnetic field as it flows through a wire. Four years later, English scientist William Sturgeon developed the first electromagnet, which consisted of a horseshoe-shaped piece of iron wrapped with copper wire. When current passed through the wire, it would attract other pieces of iron, and when the current was stopped, it lost magnetization. Though weak by modern standards, Sturgeon’s electromagnet demonstrates their potential useful