Michael Faraday

Born on September 22, 1791

Physicist and Chemist
Michael Faraday was one of the most prolific scientists of the 19th century. A British
physicist and chemist, He was born in Newington Butts (today a part of the London Borough of
Southwark), Michael Faraday did not come from a very affluent family. His father, James was a
member of the Glassite sect of Christianity. Professionally, James was an apprentice to the
village blacksmith. Third of the four children, young Michael Faraday received only basic
education. In 1804, he served as an errand boy for the bookseller George Riebau, delivering
newspapers among other things, who a year later, indentured Faraday for a period of seven
years. It was during these seven years of apprenticeship that Faraday read many books, two
amongst which that captured his attention like none others were Isaac Watts', The Improvement
of the Mind and Jane Marcets, Conversations on Chemistry. Not only did this reading activity
improve his knowledge and understanding, it also determined his course of life. Faradays keen
interest in science, especially in electricity, was developed herein. In 1812, at the end of his
apprenticeship Faraday was presented tickets to attend four lectures to be delivered by the
eminent professor of chemistry, Humphry Davy and John Tatum, founder of the City
Philosophical Society, at the Royal Institution, by William Dance, who was a regular customer
at Riebaus and one of the founders of the Royal Philharmonic Society. Faraday, in an attempt
to thank Davy, sent him a three-hundred pages book which contained notes taken during the
lecture. Later, Faraday bagged a temporary job as a secretary to Davy, when the latter damaged
his eyesight in an accident with nitrogen trichloride. In March 1813, Davy appointed Faraday as
Chemical Assistant at the Royal Institution, after John Payne, one of the Royal Institution's
assistants, was sacked. Things, however, werent as smooth for Faraday later as they were until
then. In the long tour that Davy had set out on, from 1813 until 1815, his valet did not
accompany him. As such, Faraday had to fill up for this vacancy. While the tour did open for
Faraday the doors to the scientific elite of Europe and exposed him to a host of stimulating
ideas, the journey wasnt a very pleasant one. Biased by classism, Davys wife refused to treat
Faraday as an equal and made life hell for Faraday, who, worn out by the torture, even thought
of giving up on science altogether.
In the year 1821, Faraday was appointed as the acting superintendent of the house of the
Royal Institution. Faradays earliest contribution to chemistry was while he was working as an
assistant to Davy. He was involved in the study of chlorine. Faraday also conducted experiments
on the diffusion of gases. Additionally, he succeeded in liquefying several gases, investigating
the alloys of steel, and producing several new kinds of glass intended for optical purposes. One
of Faradays most notable works was invention of the earliest form of Bunsen burner (as we call
it today), which is still in use today in the science laboratories around the world as a most
suitable source of heat. His extensive work in the field of chemistry can be found out from the
fact that he discovered the chemical substance benzene, a chemical compound of carbon and
hydrogen. Faraday also discovered two new compounds in chlorine and carbon. While one is
used in smoke grenades, the other is employed in the arena of dry cleaning, and spot removing.
Faraday is also credited for discovering the laws of electrolysis, and for popularizing
terminology such as anode, cathode, electrode, and ion, for which he took the help of William
Whewell. It is said that Faraday first reported what we today know as metallic nanoparticles. In
1847, Faraday researched that the optical properties of gold colloids differed from those of the
corresponding bulk metal, and it was this discovery which marked the birth of nanoscience.
Faraday created a storm in the field of electricity and magnetism with his work. His research in
electricity had an enormous influence on the development of mathematics. Faradays first
success in the field of electricity came when he successfully built the first electric motor. The
experiments and inventions that he undertook then, formed the foundation of modern
electromagnetic technology. He continued his laboratory work exploring electromagnetic
properties of materials and developing requisite experience. In an attempt to find out whether a
magnetic field could regulate the flow of a current in an adjacent wire or not, Faraday had set up
a circuit but he found no relationship. The next seven years of Faradays life was dedicated in
the arena of optical quality (heavy) glass, borosilicate of lead, which he used in his future
studies connecting light with magnetism. Two years following Humphry Davys death, Faraday
got involved in a series of experiments wherein he discovered electromagnetic induction.
However, the pinnacle came only when he wrapped two insulated coils of wire around an iron
ring, and found that, upon passing a current through one coil, a momentary current was induced
in the other coil, a phenomenon which is today known as mutual induction. In later experiments,
Faraday discovered that a changing magnetic field produces an electric field. This relation was
used by James Clerk Maxwell later and is today one amongst the four Maxwell equations.
Faraday, afterwards, used these principles to construct the electric dynamo, the precursor of
modern power generators. In the year 1839, Faraday conducted a series of experiments to
examine the fundamental nature of electricity. To produce the phenomena of electrostatic
attraction, electrolysis and magnetism, Faraday used "static", batteries, and "animal electricity".
When Faraday worked on the theory that electromagnetism flowed into the empty space around
a conductor, a concept at the very base of electromechanics, it was first rejected but later
approved. However, Faraday did not live to see its acceptance. It was in 1845 that Faraday
researched the notion that many materials display a weak repulsion from a magnetic field which
he termed as diamagnetism. Additionally, he also discovered the fact that the plane of
polarization of linearly polarized light could be rotated by the application of an external
magnetic field aligned in the direction in which the light moved. This phenomenon is today
termed as Faraday Effect. During his work on static electricity, Faradays experiment displayed
that the charge resided only on the exterior of a charged conductor, and exterior charge had no
influence on anything enclosed within a conductor. This was due to the fact that the exterior
charges redistributed in such a way that the interior fields due to them cancelled. This protective
effect is used in what we now know as a Faraday cage. The wedding bells for Michael Faraday
rang on June 12, 1821. His significant other, Sarah Barnard, was the daughter of the
Sandemanian silversmith, Edward Barnard. The couple first met through their families at the
Sandemanian church. One month post marriage, Faraday confessed his faith to the Sandemanian
congregation. 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. Later, in 1862, the meeting house
was relocated to Barnsbury Grove, Islington which was where Faraday served the final two
years of his second term as elder before resigning from that post