Faraday, Michael

Faraday, Michael (1791-1867), scientist, b. Newington Butts, near London.

Michael Faraday was the son of a Yorkshire blacksmith. His family were very poor.

Sometimes all he had to eat for a whole day was bread. At thirteen he became an errand boy and later a bookbinder, but he began to study science on his own.

In 1812 he went to hear four lectures by Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution and made careful notes of the lectures and bound them into a book.

Today you can see these notes on display at the Royal Institution. Faraday sent them to Davy and asked him for work. Davy had just sacked his laboratory assistant for fighting and he gave Faraday the job.

Within ten years, he became the most famous scientist in the world and in 1827 was made Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution.

He studied a great many things, but especially magnetism and electricity. He found that moving a magnet through a coil of copper wire caused an electric current to flow through the wire. This led to the invention of the electric generator.

Faraday discovered many of the principles behind electrical engineering. Every Christmas he gave a special lecture for children. The most famous of these is The Chemical History of a Candle and you can read this as a book today.

Faraday refused a knighthood. He lived to be seventy-seven in a house in Hampton Court given to him by Queen Victoria.

See Alan W. Hirshfeld The Electric Life of Michael Faraday