Michael Faraday

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Lore & Background

Michael Faraday was born on 22 September 1791 in Newington Butts, Surrey (now part of the London Borough of Southwark). His family was not well off. He had only the most basic school education and had to educate himself. At age 14 he became an apprentice to George Riebau, a local bookbinder and bookseller in Blandford Street. During his seven-year apprenticeship Faraday read many books, including Isaac Watts's The Improvement of the Mind, and he enthusiastically implemented the principles and suggestions contained therein. He also attended lectures at the City Philosophical Society and developed an interest in science, especially in electricity. In 1812, at age 20, Faraday attended lectures by Humphry Davy of the Royal Institution and the Royal Society. Many tickets were given to him by William Dance. Faraday sent Davy a 300-page book based on notes he had taken during these lectures. Davy's reply was immediate, kind, and favourable. In 1813, when Davy damaged his eyesight in an accident with nitrogen trichloride, he decided to hire Faraday as an assistant. Faraday was appointed Chemical Assistant at the Royal Institution on 1 March 1813. Very soon, Davy entrusted Faraday with the preparation of nitrogen trichloride samples, and they both were injured in an explosion of this very sensitive substance. Faraday married Sarah Barnard (1800–1879) on 12 June 1821. They met through their families at the Sandemanian church, and he confessed his faith to the Sandemanian congregation the month after they were married. They had no children. Faraday was a devout Christian; his Sandemanian denomination was an offshoot of the Church of Scotland. Well after his marriage, he served as deacon and for two terms as an elder in the meeting house of his youth. His church was located at Paul's Alley in the Barbican. This meeting house relocated in 1862 to Barnsbury Grove, Islington; this North London location was where Faraday served the final two years of his second term as elder prior to his resignation from that post. Biographers have noted that 'a strong sense of the unity of God and nature pervaded Faraday's life and work.'

Reader's Guide

Michael Faraday's significance lies in his foundational contributions to electromagnetism and electrochemistry. He established the concept of the electromagnetic field through research on the magnetic field around a conductor carrying a direct current. He discovered that magnetism could affect rays of light, and he also discovered the principles of electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism, and the laws of electrolysis. His inventions of electromagnetic rotary devices formed the foundation of electric motor technology. As a chemist, Faraday discovered benzene and tetrachloroethylene, investigated the clathrate hydrate of chlorine, invented an early form of the Bunsen burner and the system of oxidation numbers, and popularised terminology such as 'anode', 'cathode', 'electrode' and 'ion'. He became the first and foremost Fullerian Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution, a lifetime position. James Clerk Maxwell took the work of Faraday and others and summarised it in a set of equations which is accepted as the basis of all modern theories of electromagnetic phenomena. On Faraday's uses of lines of force, Maxwell wrote that they show Faraday 'to have been in reality a mathematician of a very high order – one from whom the mathematicians of the future may derive valuable and fertile methods.' Faraday devoted considerable time and energy to public service. He worked on optimising lighthouses and protecting ships from corrosion. With Charles Lyell, he produced a forensic investigation on a colliery explosion at Haswell, County Durham, indicating for the first time that coal dust contributed to the severity of the explosion, and demonstrating how ventilation could have prevented it. Faraday also investigated industrial pollution at Swansea, air pollution at the Royal Mint, and wrote to The Times on the foul condition of the River Thames during the Great Stink. He refused to work on developing chemical weapons for use in the Crimean War, citing ethical reservations. Physicist Ernest Rutherford stated, 'When we consider the magnitude and extent of his discoveries and their influence on the progress of science and of industry, there is no honour too great to pay to the memory of Faraday, one of the greatest scientific discoverers of all time.' He founded the Royal Institution's Friday Evening Discourses and was the main popularizer of its Christmas Lecture Series.

Did You Know?

• Faraday turned down a knighthood on religious grounds, preferring to remain 'plain Mr Faraday to the end'.
• He refused to work on developing chemical weapons for use in the Crimean War, citing ethical reservations.
• Faraday's first chemical work was as an assistant to Humphry Davy, and both were injured in an explosion of nitrogen trichloride.
• He was offered burial in Westminster Abbey but declined, and was interred in the dissenters' section of Highgate Cemetery.
• Albert Einstein kept a portrait of Faraday on his study wall, alongside those of Isaac Newton and James Clerk Maxwell.