Michael Faraday (1791-1867), English chemist and physicist.(Photo by Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS)
School period
College/University
Career
Gallery of Michael Faraday
1842
Michael Faraday, English chemist and physicist, 1842. Artist: Thomas Phillips. From the National Portrait Gallery, London. (Photo by Oxford Science Archive/Print Collector)
Gallery of Michael Faraday
1845
Michael Faraday, British chemist and physicist, circa 1845. (Colourised black and white print). Artist J Cook. (Photo by The Print Collector)
Gallery of Michael Faraday
1859
Michael Faraday (1791-1867), English chemist and physicist, 1859 (Photo by Apic)
Gallery of Michael Faraday
1865
English chemist and physicist Michael Faraday (1791 - 1867). (Photo by Hulton Archive)
Gallery of Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday (1791-1867), English chemist and physicist.(Photo by Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS)
Gallery of Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday, Faraday's Laboratorium, the Royal Institution of Great Britain. (Photo by Ullstein Bild)
Gallery of Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday (1791-1867) as a young man. From The Maclise Portrait Gallery, published 1898. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group)
Gallery of Michael Faraday
Pictured (from left to right) are Michael Faraday (1791-1867), discoverer of the principles of the electric motor and dynamo; John Tyndall (1820-1893), best known for his researches on heat; Sir Charles Wheatstone (1802-1875), remembered for his contributions to acoustics and electric telegraphy; Sir David Brewster (1781-1868), chiefly remembered for his work in optics; and Thomas Huxley (1825-1895), scientist and follower of Charles Darwin. The portrait was commissioned to celebrate Huxley becoming director of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. (Photo by SSPL)
Gallery of Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday (1791-1867), British physicist and chemist. Photo was taken in the latter part of his life. (Photo by Universal History Archive)
Gallery of Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday (1791-1867), an English chemist and physicist, left, and John Frederic Daniell (1790-1845), an English chemist, physicist, and meteorologist. Among his inventions were the Daniell cell, a wet storage battery, and a hygrometer. Engraving. (Photo by Universal History Archive)
Gallery of Michael Faraday
Colorized, engraved portrait of British chemist and physicist Michael Faraday (1791 - 1867), mid 19th century. (Photo by Stock Montage)
Achievements
Canceled stamp from the United Kingdom featuring the scientist Michael Faraday.
Michael Faraday, English chemist and physicist, 1842. Artist: Thomas Phillips. From the National Portrait Gallery, London. (Photo by Oxford Science Archive/Print Collector)
Michael Faraday (1791-1867) as a young man. From The Maclise Portrait Gallery, published 1898. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group)
Pictured (from left to right) are Michael Faraday (1791-1867), discoverer of the principles of the electric motor and dynamo; John Tyndall (1820-1893), best known for his researches on heat; Sir Charles Wheatstone (1802-1875), remembered for his contributions to acoustics and electric telegraphy; Sir David Brewster (1781-1868), chiefly remembered for his work in optics; and Thomas Huxley (1825-1895), scientist and follower of Charles Darwin. The portrait was commissioned to celebrate Huxley becoming director of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. (Photo by SSPL)
Michael Faraday (1791-1867), an English chemist and physicist, left, and John Frederic Daniell (1790-1845), an English chemist, physicist, and meteorologist. Among his inventions were the Daniell cell, a wet storage battery, and a hygrometer. Engraving. (Photo by Universal History Archive)
Michael Faraday was an English physicist and chemist whose many experiments contributed greatly to the understanding of electromagnetism. He discovered the principles underlying electromagnetic rotation, electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism, and electrolysis. Faraday is also known for his discovery of benzene.
Background
Michael Faraday was born on September 22, 1791, in the country village of Newington, Surrey, now a part of South London, to the family of James and Margaret Faraday.
His father was a blacksmith who had migrated from the north of England earlier in 1791 to look for work. His mother was a country woman of great calm and wisdom who supported her son emotionally through a difficult childhood.
Faraday was one of four children, all of whom were hard put to get enough to eat, since their father was often ill and incapable of working steadily. Faraday later recalled being given one loaf of bread that had to last him for a week.
Education
Michael Faraday attended the local Sunday school until he was 13. To earn money for the family he started working as a delivery boy for a bookshop. He worked hard and impressed his employer. After a year, he was promoted to become an apprentice bookbinder.
Michael Faraday was eager to learn more about the world - he did not restrict himself to binding the shop's books. After working hard each day, he spent his free time reading the books he had bound.
Gradually, he found he was reading more and more about science. Two books in particular captivated him: The Encyclopedia Britannica and much more Conversations on Chemistry. He became so fascinated that he started spending part of his meager pay on chemicals and apparatus to confirm the truth of what he was reading.
As he learned more about science, he heard that the well-known scientist John Tatum was going to give a series of public lectures on natural philosophy (physics). To attend the lectures the fee would be one shilling - too much for Michael Faraday. His older brother, a blacksmith, impressed by his brother's growing devotion to science, gave him the shilling he needed.
Faraday's education took another step upward when William Dance, a customer of the bookshop, asked if he would like tickets to hear Sir Humphry Davy lecturing at the Royal Institution. Sir Humphry Davy was one of the most famous scientists in the world. Faraday jumped at the chance and attended four lectures about one of the newest problems in chemistry - defining acidity. He watched Davy perform experiments at the lectures. This was the world he wanted to live in, he told himself. He took notes and then made so many additions to the notes that he produced a 300-page handwritten book, which he bound and sent to Davy as a tribute.
At this time Faraday had begun more sophisticated experiments at the back of the bookshop, building an electric battery using copper coins and zinc discs separated by moist, salty paper. He used his battery to decompose chemicals such as magnesium sulfate. This was the type of chemistry Humphry Davy had pioneered.
In October 1812 Faraday's apprenticeship ended, and he began work as a bookbinder with a new employer, whom he found unpleasant.
Career
Sir Humphry Davy was hurt in an explosion when an experiment went wrong: this temporarily affected his ability to write. Faraday managed to get work for a few days taking notes for Davy, who had been impressed by the book Faraday had sent him.
When his short time as Davy's note-taker ended, Faraday sent a note to Davy, asking if he might be employed as his assistant. Soon after this, one of Davy's laboratory assistants was fired for misconduct, and Davy sent a message to Faraday asking him if he would like the job of a chemical assistant.
Faraday began work at the Royal Institution of Great Britain at the age of 21 on March 1, 1813. His salary was good, and he was given a room in the Royal Institution’s attic to live in. He was very happy with the way things had turned out. He was destined to be associated with the Royal Institution for 54 years, ending up as a Professor of Chemistry. His first job was as a chemical assistant, preparing apparatus for experiments and lectures. This involved working with nitrogen trichloride, the explosive which had already injured Davy. Faraday himself was knocked unconscious briefly by another nitrogen chloride explosion, and then Davy was injured again, finally putting to an end to work with that particular substance.
After just seven months at the Royal Institution, Davy took Faraday as his secretary on a tour of Europe that lasted 18 months. During this time Faraday met great scientists such as André-Marie Ampère in Paris and Alessandro Volta in Milan. In some ways, the tour acted like a university education, and Faraday learned a lot from it. He was, however, unhappy for much of the tour, because, in addition to his scientific and secretarial work, he was required to be a personal servant to Davy and Davy’s wife, which he did not enjoy. Davy’s wife refused to treat Faraday as an equal, because he had come from a lower-class family.
Back in London, though, things began to look better again. The Royal Institution renewed Faraday's contract and increased his salary. Davy even began to acknowledge him in academic papers: "Indebted to Mr. Michael Faraday for much able assistance."
In 1816, aged 24, Faraday gave his first-ever lecture, on the properties of matter, to the City Philosophical Society. And he published his first academic paper, discussing his analysis of calcium hydroxide, in the Quarterly Journal of Science. In 1821, aged 29, he was promoted to be Superintendent of House and Laboratory of the Royal Institution. That same year, Faraday Discovered electromagnetic rotation. This is a glimpse of what would eventually develop into the electric motor, based on Hans Christian Oersted's discovery that a wire carrying electric current has magnetic properties.
In 1823, Faraday investigated gas liquefaction and refrigeration. In 1824, aged 32, he was elected to the Royal Society. This was a recognition that he had become a notable scientist in his own right.
In 1825, aged 33, he became Director of the Royal Institution’s Laboratory. In 1825, Faraday also discovered benzene in the oily residue left behind from producing gas for lighting in London. In 1831, he discovered electromagnetic induction.
Michael Faraday was deeply involved in the education sector as well. His series of lectures on the chemistry and physics of flames at the Royal Institution is still regarded as one of the earliest Christmas lectures for young minds, a practice that is still prevalent today. Faraday is known to have given Christmas lectures for a record nineteen times between 1827 and 1860. For this accomplishment, the University of Oxford granted Faraday an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree in June 1832.
In 1833, aged 41, he became Fullerian Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. He held this position for the rest of his life. In 1838, he was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and later in 1844, Faraday became one of eight Foreign Members elected to the French Academy of Sciences. Meanwhile, in his life, Faraday declined the offer of a knighthood and twice (in 1848 and in 1858) refused the post of the President of the Royal Society which was offered to him.
In 1845, Faraday discovered that a magnetic field influenced polarized light (Faraday effect), he also discovered diamagnetism. The following year, in May 1846, Faraday published the article Thoughts on Ray Vibrations, a prophetic publication in which he speculated that light could be a vibration of the electric and magnetic lines of force.
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.
However, in the early 1840s, Faraday's health began to deteriorate and he did less research. He died on 25 August 1867 at Hampton Court in Middlesex, where he had been given official lodgings in recognition of his contribution to science.
Faraday's family were held closely together by a strong religious faith, being members of the Sandemanians, a form of the Protestant Church which had split from the Church of Scotland. The Sandemanians believed in the literal truth of the Bible and tried to recreate the sense of love and community which had characterized the early Christian Church. The religious influence was important for Faraday since the theories he developed later in his life were strongly influenced by a belief in a unity of the world.
Politics
Michael Faraday limited his political involvements and felt ill-equipped to undertake positions of worldly leadership.
Views
In 1802 John Dalton had stated his belief that all gases could be liquefied by the use of low temperatures and/or high pressures. Faraday provided hard evidence for Dalton’s belief when he used high pressures to produce the first-ever liquid samples of chlorine and ammonia.
The ammonia liquefaction was of further interest because Faraday observed that when he allowed the ammonia to evaporate again, it caused cooling. The principle of cooling by artificial evaporation had been demonstrated publicly by William Cullen in Edinburgh in 1756. Cullen had used a pump to reduce the pressure above a flask of ether, causing the ether to evaporate quickly. The evaporation caused cooling, and ice formed on the outside of the flask as moisture from the air came into contact with it.
The importance of Faraday’s discovery was that he had shown that mechanical pumps could transform a gas at room temperature into a liquid. The liquid could then be evaporated, cooling its surroundings and the resulting gas could be collected and compressed by a pump into a liquid again, then the whole cycle could be repeated. This is the basis of how modern refrigerators and freezers work.
In 1862 Ferdinand Carré demonstrated the world’s first commercial ice-making machine at the Universal London Exhibition. The machine used ammonia as its coolant and produced ice at the rate of 200 kg per hour.
In 1831, Faraday discovered that a varying magnetic field causes electricity to flow in an electric circuit - electromagnetic induction. For example, moving a horseshoe magnet over a wire produces an electric current, because the movement of the magnet causes a varying magnetic field.
Previously, people had only been able to produce electric current with a battery. Faraday had shown that movement could be turned into electricity - or in more scientific language, kinetic energy could be converted to electrical energy. Rotation (kinetic energy) is converted into electricity using electromagnetic induction. The rotation can be produced by high-pressure steam from coal, gas, or nuclear energy turning turbines; or by hydroelectric plants; or by wind-turbines, for example.
In 1831, Micheal Faraday formulated two laws on the bases of experiments. These laws are called Faraday's laws of electromagnetic induction. First Law of Faraday's Electromagnetic Induction state that whenever a conductor is placed in a varying magnetic field emf are induced which is called induced emf, if the conductor circuit is closed current are also induced which is called induced current. Second Law of Faraday's Electromagnetic Induction states that the induced emf is equal to the rate of change of flux linkages (flux linkages is the product of turns, n of the coil and the flux associated with it).
In 1836, Faraday discovered that when any electric conductor becomes charged, all the extra charge sits on the outside of the conductor. This means that the extra charge does not appear on the inside of a room or cage made of metal. In addition to offering protection for people, sensitive electrical or electrochemical experiments can be placed inside a Faraday Cage to prevent interference from external electrical activity. Faraday cages can also create dead zones for mobile communications.
Michael Faraday also discovered a phenomenon known as the magneto-optical effect or Faraday effect in 1845. To be precise, he found that the plane of vibration of a beam of linearly polarized light incident on a piece of glass rotated when a magnetic field was applied in the direction of propagation of the beam. This was one of the first indications that electromagnetism and light were related.
In 1845, Faraday discovered diamagnetism as a property of all matter. He suggested that all substances are diamagnetic – most are weakly so, some are strongly so. Diamagnetism opposes the direction of an applied magnetic field. For example, if somebody held the north pole of a magnet near a strongly diamagnetic substance, this substance would be pushed away by the magnet. Diamagnetism in materials, induced by very strong modern magnets, can be used to produce levitation. Even living things, such as frogs, are diamagnetic – and can be levitated in a strong magnetic field.
Quotations:
"Nature is our kindest friend and best critic in experimental science if we only allow her intimations to fall unbiased on our minds."
"The lecturer should give the audience full reason to believe that all his powers have been exerted for their pleasure and instruction."
"Work, finish, publish."
"A centre of excellence is, by definition, a place where second class people may perform first class work."
"Nothing is too wonderful to be true."
Membership
In 1824, Faraday was elected a member of the Royal Society.
In 1832, he became a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Faraday was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1838, and was one of eight Foreign Members elected to the French Academy of Sciences in 1844.
In 1849, he was elected as an Associated Member to the Royal Institute of the Netherlands, which two years later became the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and he was subsequently made a Foreign Member.
The Royal Society
1824
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1832
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
1838
French Academy of Sciences
1844
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
1849
Personality
Faraday was known throughout his life as a kind and humble person, unconcerned with honors and eager to practice his science to the best of his ability.
Physical Characteristics:
Faraday suffered a nervous breakdown in 1839 but eventually returned to his electromagnetic investigations.
Quotes from others about the person
Aldous Huxley: "Even if I could be Shakespeare I think that I should still choose to be Faraday."
James Clerk Maxwell: "Faraday is, and must always remain, the father of that enlarged science of electromagnetism."
Interests
Reading, theatre
Connections
In 1821, aged 29, Michael Faraday married Sarah Barnard. He and his spouse lived in rooms in the Royal Institution for most of the next 46 years: no longer in attic rooms, they lived in a comfortable suite Humphry Davy himself had once lived in.