  We study the generation of an electric current in an ideal conducting coil,
immersed in a magnetic field, due to the occurrence of a gravitational
perturbation. We show that this effect can be used to detect gravitational
waves impinging on the coil as well as gravitational gradients when the coil
moves in a static background gravitational field. Our work opens the way to
employing induced electric signals to detect dynamical gravitational fields and
for gradiometry.
