Michael Faraday (1791-1867)

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.

What did Michael Faraday do to help us perform corrosion

monitoring?

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.