History of Horseshoe Magnets

For many people, the red-blue horseshoe is a symbol of a magnet, perhaps because such magnets are often used in schools as teaching aids. Indeed, the horseshoe is very characteristic and has an incredibly interesting history. It all began in 1821 in England when the local cobbler, William Sturgeon, started experimenting with magnets. William had the desired profession of that time, as he was a cobbler, but in his free time, he was passionate about physics. This passion led him to wind a piece of iron into a U-shaped form with wire and pass an electric current through this wire. This not only marked the first appearance of the horseshoe as a magnet but also became the first electromagnet created by a human. And, importantly in this story, it was the first magnet capable of holding more weight than its mass. Sturgeon's experiments had a significant impact on the development of magnetism, although his name is unfortunately rarely mentioned. He discovered that the shape of a magnet has a significant influence on its strength. In the case of the horseshoe, the magnetic field is more concentrated between the poles due to their shorter distance. This directly translates into a greater attracting force than magnets in the shape of bars or cylinders.