In 1821, the English scientist Michael Faraday constructed the first working electric motor at the Royal Institution in London. Building on Orsted's and Ampere's discoveries, Faraday devised a device in which a wire carrying an electric current rotated continuously around a fixed magnet, the principle underlying all electric motors. This invention, created in Faraday's basement laboratory in London, demonstrated that electrical energy could be converted into continuous mechanical motion for the first time in history.

Faraday's motor represented the first practical conversion of invisible electrical force into visible physical motion, a transformation that Victorian poets and writers found deeply metaphorical. The idea that hidden energies could produce visible, sustained action in the world resonated with Victorian literature's preoccupation with the relationship between inner life and outward behavior. Faraday himself, despite his lack of formal education, became a celebrated public lecturer whose eloquent demonstrations at the Royal Institution attracted writers including Charles Dickens, who modeled aspects of his characters on the self-made scientist.