The Magnetism of an Inventor

From the collection of

The Box
Established in 1992, the South West Film & Television Archive collection spans from 1893 to the present day containing more than 250,000 items. Formed from a variety of depositors, including broadcast news and programmes material from the Westward and TSW archive. In 2018 the archive collection transferred to The Box in Plymouth.

The Magnetism of an Inventor


Magnet draws you back to the future

TV reporter Clive Gunnell is sucked in completely by Inventor and Scientist who lectures on magnetism at the University of Exeter Herbert W Hayden. This important lesson demonstrates how magnets work in zero gravity as in space. So next time you see an astronaut floating about the international space station, spare a thought for the magnet not losing its properties in the absence of a gravitational field.

In physics, electromagnetism is a fundamental force and thankfully in this demonstration electromagnetism saves the feet of the journalist. Mr Hayden uses a magnet invented during the Second World War used to attach bombs to hulls of ships underwater prompting the question in which medium does a magnet lose its properties? Any comparisons of Mr Hayden to Christopher Lloyd's Dr Emmett Doc Brown character in Back To The Future (1985) would be purely speculative unless of course time travel were a credible option.


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