In this foundational study, Friedrich Steinle compares the influential work of Ampere and Faraday to reveal the prominent role of exploratory experimentation in the development of science. Focusing on Ampere's and Faraday's research practices, reconstructed from previously unknown archival materials, this book considers both the historic and epistemological basis of exploratory experimentation?and its importance to scientific development.

Friedrich Steinle is professor of history of science at the Technical University of Berlin and president of the German Society for History of Science, Medicine, and Technology.