The Homopolar Motor was the first electrical motor ever built, it was built and discovered by Michael Faraday in 1821 at the Royal Institution in London.
Not long after, physicist and chemist, Hans Christian Orsted discovered the phenomenon of electromagnetism, Humphry Davy and William Hyde tried and failed to build an electric motor soon after.
Farday later designed two devices that produced "electromagnetic rotation" as he called it, one of these became known as the Homopolar motor.
Orsted may have discovered electromagnetism but people had been studying electricity and the science behind it for centuries. Lightning and other such forms or electricity
were known i ancient times, but it was not understood that they had a common origin was there any theory to explain them
The first homopolar motor has a continuous circular motion that was caused by the circular magnetic force around a wire that extended into a pool of mercury where a magnet way placed; the wire would
then rotate around the magnet when the battery supplied chemical energy. This first magnet was large and crude that he describes as "This apparatus may be much reduced in size, and made
very more delicate and sensible".
The experiments and inventions formed the basis of modern electromagnetic technology as we know it today. However in his excitement over it, Farday published the results without giving
acknowledgment to either Davy or Wollaston, this resulted in controversy within the royal society and strained his mentor relationship with Davy. This consequentally prevented Fardays involvement in
electromagnetic research for several years.