The Danish physicist Hans Christian Oersted (1777-1851) was the first to notice the interaction of electric current and the magnetic needle, thereby initiating the study of electromagnetism.

Hans Oersted was born on Aug. 14, 1777, in Rudköbing on the island of Langeland. Hans received his education from some friendly townspeople, but what was lacking in the way of competent teachers was amply supplemented by Oersted's extraordinary thirst for knowledge. In 1794 he went to Copenhagen and matriculated in science at the university in the fall of that year. The completion of his training in pharmacy came in 1797. Two years later he received his doctorate for a dissertation in which a new and competent theory of alkalies was proposed.

Oersted began his teaching career at the University of Copenhagen as lecturer in pharmacy. In 1801 he went abroad and sought out some of the best philosophic and scientific minds in Germany...