Chemist, physicist, and natural philosopher, usually regarded as the greatest of all experimental physicists, born in Newington Butts, Surrey, SE England, UK. Apprenticed to a bookbinder, he devoted his leisure to reading scientific books and joined a weekly club to learn elementary science. In 1813 he was engaged by Davy as his assistant at the Royal Institution, soon became his co-worker, and in 1827 succeeded to Davy's chair of chemistry, a post he held until retirement. His research contributed to an extremely broad area of physical science: he discovered benzene and the laws of electrolysis, invented an electric motor, dynamo and transformer, and was the creator of classical field theory. His major work is the series of Experimental Researches on Electricity (183955), in which he reports a wide range of discoveries about the nature of electricity. In 1845 he worked on his idea that the forces of electricity, magnetism, light and gravity are connected and was able to show that polarized light is affected by a magnetic field. He failed to get a similar result with an electric field, an effect later discovered (1875) by John Kerr. In 1846 Faraday delivered a lecture that included Thoughts on Ray Vibrations which Maxwell acknowledged as the basis of the electromagnetic theory of light that he presented in 1873. Faraday's popular Christmas lectures for young people, begun in 1826, continue today and are now televised.
Michael Faraday|
Michael Faraday from a photograph by John Watkins, British Library |
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| Born |
September 22, 1791 Newington Butts, England |
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| Died |
August 25, 1867 Hampton Court, London, England |
| Residence | England |
| Nationality | English |
| Field | Physicist and Chemist |
| Institution | Royal Institution |
| Doctoral Advisor | Humphry Davy |
| Known for | Electromagnetic induction |
| Notable Prizes | Royal Medal (1846) |
| Religion | Sandemanian |
Note that Faraday did not have a tertiary education, however Humphry Davy is considered to be the equivalent of his doctoral advisor in terms of academic mentorship. The SI unit of
capacitance, the farad, is named after him, as is the Faraday constant, the charge on a mole of electrons (about 96,485 coulombs). Faraday's law of induction states that a magnetic field
changing in time creates a proportional electromotive force. Faraday was the first, and most famous, holder of this position to which he was appointed for life.Career outlineMichael Faraday was born in Newington Butts, near present-day Elephant and Castle in South London, England. his father, James Faraday, was a Yorkshire blacksmith who suffered ill-health throughout his life. After the most basic of school educations, Faraday had to educate himself. At the age of twenty, in 1812, at the end of his apprenticeship, Faraday attended lectures by the eminent English chemist and physicist Humphry Davy of the Royal Institution and Royal Society, and John Tatum, founder of the City Philosophical Society. Many tickets for these lectures were given to Faraday by William Dance (one of the founders of the Royal Philharmonic Society). Afterwards, Faraday sent Davy a three hundred page book based on notes taken during the lectures. When Davy damaged his eyesight in an accident with nitrogen trichloride, he decided to employ Faraday as a secretary. He appointed Faraday as Chemical Assistant at the Royal Institution on 1 March 1813. In the class-based English society of the time, Faraday was not considered a gentleman. Faraday was going as Davy's scientific assistant, and was asked to act as Davy's valet until a replacement could be found in Paris. Davy failed to find a replacement, and Faraday was forced to fill the role of valet as well as assistant throughout the trip. Davy's wife, Jane Apreece, refused to treat Faraday as an equal (making him travel outside the coach, eat with the servants, etc.) and generally made Faraday so miserable that he contemplated returning to England alone and giving up science altogether. His sponsor and mentor was John 'Mad Jack' Fuller, who created the Fullerian Professorship of Chemistry at the Royal Institution. Faraday was a devout Christian and a member of the small Sandemanian denomination, an offshoot of the Church of Scotland. Faraday married Sarah Barnard (1800-1879) on 2 June 1821, although they would never have children. Scientific achievementsChemistryFaraday's earliest chemical work was as an assistant to Davy. A specimen of one of these heavy glasses afterwards became historically important as the substance in which Faraday detected the rotation of the plane of polarisation of light when the glass was placed in a magnetic field, and also as the substance which was first repelled by the poles of the magnet. Faraday worked extensively in the field of chemistry, discovering chemical substances such as benzene (which he called bicarburet of hydrogen), inventing the system of oxidation numbers, and liquefying gases such as chlorine. Faraday also discovered the laws of electrolysis and popularized terminology such as anode, cathode, electrode, and ion, terms largely created by William Whewell. For these accomplishments, many modern chemists regard Faraday as one of the finest experimental scientists in history. 
In 1821, soon after the Danish physicist and chemist, Hans Christian Ørsted discovered the phenomenon of electromagnetism, Davy and British scientist William Hyde Wollaston tried but failed to design an electric motor. Faraday, having discussed the problem with the two men, went on to build two devices to produce what he called electromagnetic rotation: a continuous circular motion from the circular magnetic force around a wire and a wire extending into a pool of mercury with a magnet placed inside would rotate around the magnet if supplied with current from a chemical battery. Unwisely, Faraday published his results without acknowledging his debt to Wollaston and Davy, and the resulting controversy caused Faraday to withdraw from electromagnetic research for several years. At this stage, there is also evidence to suggest that Davy may have been trying to slow Faraday’s rise as a scientist (or natural philosopher as it was known then). It was not until Davy's death, in 1829, that Faraday stopped these fruitless tasks and moved on to endeavors that were more worthwhile. This relation was mathematically modelled by Faraday's law, which subsequently went on to become one of the four Maxwell equations. Faraday later used the principle to construct the electric dynamo, the ancestor of modern power generators. Faraday used "static," used batteries, and used "animal electricity" to produce electrostatic attraction, electrolysis, magnetism, etc. Faraday instead proposed that only a single "electricity" exists, and the changing values of quantity and intensity (voltage and charge) would produce different groups of phenomena. Near the end of his career Faraday proposed that electromagnetic forces extended into the empty space around the conductor. This idea was rejected by his fellow scientists, and Faraday did not live to see this idea eventually accepted. Faraday's concept of lines of flux emanating from charged bodies and magnets provided a way to visualize electric and magnetic fields. In 1845 he discovered the phenomenon that he named diamagnetism, and what is now called the Faraday effect: The plane of polarization of linearly polarized light propagated through a material medium can be rotated by the application of an external magnetic field aligned in the propagation direction. In his work on static electricity, Faraday demonstrated that the charge only resided on the exterior of a charged conductor, and exterior charge had no influence on anything enclosed within a conductor. This shielding effect is used in what is now known as a Faraday cage. Faraday, nevertheless, possessed the gift of the ability to present his ideas in clear and simple language. Later lifeIn 1848, as a result of representations by the Prince Consort, Michael Faraday was awarded a Grace and favour house in Hampton Court, Surrey free of all expenses or upkeep. This was the Master Mason's House, later called Faraday House, and now No.37 Hampton Court Road. During his lifetime, Faraday rejected a knighthood and twice refused to become President of the Royal Society. MiscellaneousHe gave a successful series of lectures on the chemistry and physics of flames at the Royal Institution, entitled The Chemical History of a Candle; Michael Faraday refused to participate in the production of chemical weapons for the Crimean War citing ethical issues as his reason. A statue of Michael Faraday stands in Savoy Place, London, outside the Institution of Electrical Engineers. In the Video Game Chromehounds there is a ThermoVision Device named the Faraday. PublicationsPublished Works by Michael FaradayChemical Manipulation, being Instructions to Students in Chemistry (1 vol., John Murray, 1st ed. P., Michael Faraday; Above the doorways of the Pfahler Hall of Science at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, there is a stone inscription of a quote attributed to Michael Faraday which reads "but still try, for who knows what is possible..."External links and articlesBiographiesDetailed biography of Faraday IEE biography of Michael Faraday Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall, Project Gutenberg (downloads) The Christian Character of Michael Faraday Biography at The Royal Institution of Great Britain Michael Faraday on the 20 British Pound banknote. Short biography of FaradayOthersMichael Faraday at the Open Directory Project Works by Michael Faraday at Project Gutenberg (downloads) "Experimental Researches in Electricity" by Michael Faraday Original text with Biographical Introduction by Professor John Tyndall, 1914, Everyman edition. Video Podcast with Sir John Cadogan talking about Benzene since Faradayjuan is not straight h is rainbw Further readingAmes, Joseph Sweetman (Ed.), "The discovery of induced electric currents" Vol. Memoirs, by Michael Faraday. |
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