 Michael Faraday, the discoverer of
electro-magnetic induction, electro-magnetic rotations, the
magneto-optical effect, diamagnetism, field theory and much else
besides, was born in Newington Butts (the area of London now known as
the Elephant and Castle) on 22 September 1791. In 1805 at the age of
fourteen Faraday was apprenticed as a bookbinder to George Riebau of
Blandford Street. During his seven year apprenticeship Faraday
developed his interest in science and in particular chemistry. He was
there able to perform chemical experiments and built his own
electro-static machine. But, more importantly, Faraday joined the City
Philosophical Society in 1810. In this society, which was devoted to
self-improvement, a group of young men met every week to hear lectures
on scientific topics and to discuss scientific matters. This is where
Faraday would give his first scientific lectures.
Towards the end of his apprenticeship, in 1812, Faraday
was given, by one of Riebau's customers, William Dance, four tickets
to hear
Humphry Davy's last four lectures at the Royal Institution.
Faraday attended these lectures took notes and later in the year
presented them to Davy asking for a position in science. Davy
interviewed Faraday, but said that he had no position available. Early
in 1813 there was a fight in the main lecture theatre of the Royal
Institution between the Instrument Maker and the Chemical Assistant
which resulted in the dismissal of the latter. Davy was asked to find
a replacement for him and he remembered Faraday. Davy called Faraday
for a second interview the result of which was that Faraday was
appointed Chemical Assistant at the Royal Institution on 1 March 1813.
Faraday, in effect, started a second apprenticeship in chemistry.
For most of the 1810s and 1820s he worked under
Davy's replacement as Professor of Chemistry, William Thomas Brande.
However, between October 1813 and April 1815, he accompanied Davy, as
his assistant, on a scientific tour of the Continent. Davy had been
given a passport by Napoleon for himself, his wife, her maid and a
valet. Faraday, very reluctantly, agreed to also perform this latter
role. On the tour they visited Paris, Italy where they met the aged
Volta, visited Vesuvius and Davy was able to decompose a diamond into
carbon by using the Duke of Tuscany's great lens, Switzerland and
Southern Germany.
Back in England, Faraday resumed his position as
Chemical Assistant at the Royal Institution and continued to learn his
science from Brande as well as occasionally helping Davy as with the
Miner's Safety Lamp in 1816 and 1817. Between 1818 and 1822 he worked
with the surgical instrument maker James Stoddart in improving the
quality of
steel. The year 1821 was in many ways one of the most important in
Faraday's life. On 21 May 1821 he was promoted in the Royal
Institution to be Superintendent of the House. On 2 June he married
Sarah Barnard who was a member of one of the leading Sandemanian
families in London.
The year was also the one when he made his first
major contribution to natural knowledge. In 1820 the Danish natural
philosopher Hans Christian Oersted had discovered electro-magnetism.
This he announced in a paper written in Latin, but was quickly
translated into the major scientific languages of Europe. It was
immediately evident that Oersted had made a major discovery. What was
clear was that Oersted had opened up a major field of scientific
enquiry which was exploited by savants all over Europe. Faraday was
part of this effort and on 3 and 4 September 1821 in his basement
laboratory at the Royal Institution, he undertook a set of experiments
which culminated in his discovery of electro-magnetic rotation - the
principle behind the electric motor.
In the ensuing decade following this discovery,
Faraday's opportunity for doing original research was severely
circumscribed by his lecturing activiites, although he was able to
liquefy chlorine in 1823 and discover bicarbuet of hydrogen, later
renamed benzene by Eilhard Mitscherlich, in 1825. It was not until
nearly ten years to the day after his discovery of electro-magnetic
rotations that Faraday was able to resume his work on
electro-magnetism, when he discovered on 29 August 1831,
electro-magnetic induction. This is the principle behind the electric
transformer and generator. It was this discovery, more than any other,
that allowed electricity to be turned, during the nineteenth century,
from a scientific curiosity into a powerful technology.
During the remainder of the 1830s Faraday worked on
developing his ideas on electricity. He enunciated a new theory of
electro-chemical action between 1832 and 1834 one of the results of
which was that he coined many of the words now so familiar -
electrode, electrolyte, anode, cathode and ion to name but five. In
the later half of the 1830s Faraday worked on a new theory of static
electricity and electrical induction. This work led him to reject the
traditional theory that electricity was an imponderable fluid or
fluids. Instead he proposed that electricity was a form of force that
passed from particle to particle of matter.
Between 1830 and 1851 Faraday was Professor of
Chemistry at the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich. During his tenure
generations of officers of the Royal Engineers and Royal Artillery
learnt their chemistry from him. He died at Hampton Court on 25 August
1867 and was buried in the Sandemanian plot in Highgate Cemetery five
days later.
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