In late 1820, the French physicist and mathematician Andre-Marie Ampere rapidly developed a comprehensive mathematical theory of the relationship between electricity and magnetism following news of Orsted's discovery. Working at the College de France in Paris, Ampere formulated the law that bears his name, demonstrating that two parallel wires carrying electric currents attract or repel each other depending on their direction. He founded the entirely new science of electrodynamics within months of Orsted's initial report.

Ampere's rapid theoretical synthesis of Orsted's discovery exemplified the French Enlightenment and post-Revolutionary ideal of systematic, rational thought, a mode of intellectual activity that was both celebrated and critiqued in French literature of the period. Stendhal, Balzac, and other French novelists of the 1820s and 1830s were deeply engaged with contemporary science, and the electromagnetic theories developing in Parisian salons and institutions provided them with metaphors for the invisible social, economic, and emotional forces governing human relationships.