You Can Tax It

Michael Faraday was a little nervous as he began discussing what he was working on. The crisply dressed mustachioed man he was speaking with was a representative of the British government, and Faraday needed his help.

He was carrying on the 6th century BCE legacy of Thales of Miletus, who had noticed that when you rubbed animal fur on amber, you could seemingly defy gravity by picking up lighter materials like a feather, and lifting it off the ground.

Those Greeks called amber “elektron.” That’s where we get the name for electricity today. Ancient Egyptians and Romans knew about electric eels and static electricity, but not much else.

The MP (member of parliament) tweaked his mustache. “I say, good sir, how on earth will this study ever produce anything practical? It seems as though you’re only interested in the scientific pursuit of knowledge for its own ends.”

Faraday paused for a moment, then shot back an iconic quote:

“Bruh. You can tax it.”

Okay, this quote probably never happened—even the “you can tax it” part—but the legend has stuck in the storied retelling of Faraday’s innovations.

Before his life and contributions to our understanding of electromagnetism, our comprehension was little better than the ancients. After Faraday, doors opened up to discoveries that shaped our modern world, and revolutionized the way we viewed the universe.

In 1820, a Danish physicist named Hans Christian Ørsted observed that a compass needle could be manipulated by a wire carrying an electric current. This led physics down a rabbit hole, culminating in the realization that electricity and magnetism were the same force.

This sort of unification happens every so often in physics, and it changes everything. Newton figured out that the moon was held in place by the same force that makes apocryphal apples fall to the ground. This understanding of gravity got us to the moon.

Faraday picked up the bread crumbs Ørsted dropped for him just a decade later.

He found that moving a magnet through a coil of wire induced an electric current in the wire. Not only could this mysterious electric force manipulate a magnet, but the very thing itself—electricity—could be created with a magnet.

This was a not only a pivotal moment in the history of science, but it was also the cornerstone of modern electrical technology. This is how the motor in every car runs, and it’s also how the lights in your house turn on.

Faraday's discovery of electromagnetic induction is the principle behind the transformers on your street, which step down high-voltage electricity from power lines to a lower voltage suitable for home use. In essence, every time you switch on an appliance, use a computer, or even charge your phone, you are witnessing the legacy of Faraday's work.

Electric induction paved the way for today’s information age, too. In the near two centuries that have passed since Faraday made his invaluable contribution, the UK government has, indeed, been able to tax this concept. Since 1831, the economy has grown many times over, and the government must have received trillions of pounds in additional tax revenue.

I guess it’s a good thing they ended up taxing it!