Faraday was an experimentalist who conveyed his ideas in clear and simple language. His mathematical abilities did not extend as far astrigonometry and were limited to the simplest algebra. Physicist and mathematicianJames Clerk Maxwell took the work of Faraday and others and summarised it in a set of equations which is accepted as the basis of all modern theories of electromagnetic phenomena. On Faraday's uses oflines of force, Maxwell wrote that they show Faraday "to have been in reality a mathematician of a very high order – one from whom the mathematicians of the future may derive valuable and fertile methods."[7]
A highly principled scientist, Faraday devoted considerable time and energy to public service. He worked on optimisinglighthouses and protecting ships fromcorrosion. WithCharles Lyell, he produced aforensic investigation on acolliery explosion atHaswell, County Durham, indicating for the first time thatcoal dust contributed to the severity of the explosion, and demonstrating how ventilation could have prevented it.[8] Faraday also investigated industrial pollution atSwansea,air pollution at theRoyal Mint, and wrote toThe Times on the foul condition of theRiver Thames during theGreat Stink.[9] He refused to work on developing chemical weapons for use in the Crimean War, citing ethical reservations. He declined to have his lectures published, preferring people to recreate the experiments for themselves, to better experience the discovery, and told a publisher: "I have always loved science more than money & because my occupation is almost entirely personal I cannot afford to get rich."[10]
Albert Einstein kept a portrait of Faraday on his study wall, alongside those ofIsaac Newton and James Clerk Maxwell.[11] PhysicistErnest Rutherford stated, "When we consider the magnitude and extent of his discoveries and their influence on the progress of science and of industry, there is no honour too great to pay to the memory of Faraday, one of the greatest scientific discoverers of all time."[2]
Michael Faraday was born on September 21, 1791 inNewington Butts,[12]Surrey, which is now part of theLondon Borough of Southwark.[13] His family was not well off. His father, James, was a member of theGlasite sect of Christianity. James Faraday moved his wife, Margaret (née Hastwell),[14] and two children to London during the winter of 1790 fromOuthgill inWestmorland, where he had been an apprentice to the village blacksmith.[15] Michael was born in the autumn of the following year, the third of four children. The young Michael Faraday, having only the most basic school education, had toeducate himself.[16]
At the age of 14, he became an apprentice toGeorge Riebau, a local bookbinder and bookseller in Blandford Street.[17] During his seven-year apprenticeship Faraday read many books, includingIsaac Watts'sThe Improvement of the Mind, and he enthusiastically implemented the principles and suggestions contained therein.[18] During this period, Faraday held discussions with his peers in the City Philosophical Society, where he attended lectures about various scientific topics.[19] He also developed an interest in science, especially in electricity. Faraday was particularly inspired by the bookConversations on Chemistry byJane Marcet.[20][21]
In 1812, at the age of 20 and at the end of his apprenticeship, Faraday attended lectures by the eminent English chemistHumphry Davy of theRoyal Institution and theRoyal Society, andJohn Tatum, founder of the City Philosophical Society. Many of the tickets for these lectures were given to Faraday byWilliam Dance, who was one of the founders of theRoyal Philharmonic Society. Faraday subsequently sent Davy a 300-page book based on notes that he had taken during these lectures. Davy's reply was immediate, kind, and favourable. In 1813, when Davy damaged his eyesight in an accident withnitrogen trichloride, he decided to employ Faraday as an assistant. Coincidentally one of the Royal Institution's assistants, John Payne, was sacked and Sir Humphry Davy had been asked to find a replacement; thus he appointed Faraday as Chemical Assistant at the Royal Institution on 1 March 1813.[3] Very soon, Davy entrusted Faraday with the preparation of nitrogen trichloride samples, and they both were injured in an explosion of this very sensitive substance.[22]
Faraday married Sarah Barnard (1800–1879) on 12 June 1821.[23] They met through their families at theSandemanian church, and he confessed his faith to the Sandemanian congregation the month after they were married. They had no children.[12] Faraday was a devout Christian; his Sandemanian denomination was an offshoot of theChurch of Scotland. Well after his marriage, he served asdeacon and for two terms as anelder in the meeting house of his youth. His church was located at Paul's Alley in theBarbican. This meeting house relocated in 1862 toBarnsbury Grove,Islington; this North London location was where Faraday served the final two years of his second term as elder prior to his resignation from that post.[24][25] Biographers have noted that "a strong sense of the unity of God and nature pervaded Faraday's life and work."[26]
Faraday House inHampton Court where Faraday lived between 1858 and 1867
Faraday had anervous breakdown in 1839 but eventually returned to his investigations into electromagnetism.[34] In 1848, as a result of representations by thePrince Consort, Faraday was awarded agrace and favour house inHampton Court in Middlesex, free of all expenses and upkeep. This was the Master Mason's House, later called Faraday House, and now No. 37 Hampton Court Road. In 1858 Faraday retired to live there.[35]
Having provided a number of various service projects for the British government, when asked by the government to advise on the production of chemical weapons for use in theCrimean War (1853–1856), Faraday refused to participate, citing ethical reasons.[36] He also refused offers to publish his lectures, believing that they would lose impact if not accompanied by the live experiments. His reply to an offer from a publisher in a letter ends with: "I have always loved science more than money & because my occupation is almost entirely personal I cannot afford to get rich."[10]
Equipment used by Faraday to make glass on display at theRoyal Institution in London
Faraday's earliest chemical work was as an assistant toHumphry Davy. Faraday was involved in the study ofchlorine; he discovered two new compounds of chlorine andcarbon:hexachloroethane which he made via the chlorination ofethylene andcarbon tetrachloride from the decomposition of the former. He also conducted the first rough experiments on the diffusion of gases, a phenomenon that was first pointed out byJohn Dalton. The physical importance of this phenomenon was more fully revealed byThomas Graham andJoseph Loschmidt. Faraday succeeded in liquefying several gases, investigated the alloys of steel, and produced several new kinds of glass intended for optical purposes. A specimen of one of these heavy glasses subsequently became historically important; when the glass was placed in a magnetic field Faraday determined the rotation of the plane of polarisation of light. This specimen was also the first substance found to be repelled by the poles of a magnet.[40][41]
Faraday invented an early form of what was to become theBunsen burner, which is still in practical use in science laboratories around the world as a convenient source of heat.[42][43]Faraday worked extensively in the field of chemistry, discovering chemical substances such asbenzene (which he called bicarburet of hydrogen) and liquefying gases such as chlorine. The liquefying of gases helped to establish that gases are the vapours of liquids possessing a very low boiling point and gave a more solid basis to the concept of molecular aggregation. In 1820 Faraday reported the first synthesis of compounds made from carbon and chlorine,C2Cl6 andCCl4, and published his results the following year.[44][45][46] Faraday also determined the composition of the chlorineclathrate hydrate, which had been discovered by Humphry Davy in 1810.[47][48] Faraday is also responsible for discovering thelaws of electrolysis, and for popularising terminology such asanode,cathode,electrode, andion, terms proposed in large part byWilliam Whewell.[49]
Faraday was the first to report what later came to be called metallicnanoparticles. In 1857 he discovered that the optical properties of goldcolloids differed from those of the corresponding bulk metal. This was probably the first reported observation of the effects ofquantum size, and might be considered to be the birth ofnanoscience.[50]
Faraday is best known for his work on electricity and magnetism. His first recorded experiment was the construction of avoltaic pile with sevenBritish halfpenny coins, stacked together with seven discs of sheet zinc, and six pieces of paper moistened with salt water.[51] With this pile he passed theelectric current through a solution ofsulfate of magnesia and succeeded in decomposing the chemical compound (recorded in first letter to Abbott, 12 July 1812).[51]
Electromagnetic rotation experiment of Faraday, 1821, the first demonstration of the conversion of electrical energy into motion[52]
In 1821, soon after the Danish physicist and chemistHans Christian Ørsted discovered the phenomenon ofelectromagnetism, Davy andWilliam Hyde Wollaston tried, but failed, to design anelectric motor.[4] Faraday, having discussed the problem with the two men, went on to build two devices to produce what he called "electromagnetic rotation". One of these, now known as thehomopolar motor, caused a continuous circular motion that was engendered by the circular magnetic force around a wire that extended into a pool ofmercury wherein was placed a magnet; the wire would then rotate around the magnet if supplied with current from a chemical battery. These experiments and inventions formed the foundation of modern electromagnetic technology. In his excitement, Faraday published results without acknowledging his work with either Wollaston or Davy. The resulting controversy within theRoyal Society strained his mentor relationship with Davy and may well have contributed to Faraday's assignment to other activities, which consequently prevented his involvement in electromagnetic research for several years.[53][54]
One of Faraday's 1831 experiments demonstrating induction. The liquid battery(right) sends an electric current through the small coil(A). When it is moved in or out of the large coil(B), its magnetic field induces a momentary voltage in the coil, which is detected by the galvanometer(G).
From his initial discovery in 1821, Faraday continued his laboratory work, exploring electromagnetic properties of materials and developing requisite experience. In 1824, Faraday briefly set up a circuit to study whether a magnetic field could regulate the flow of a current in an adjacent wire, but he found no such relationship.[55] This experiment followed similar work conducted with light and magnets three years earlier that yielded identical results.[56][57] During the next seven years, Faraday spent much of his time perfecting his recipe for optical quality (heavy) glass, borosilicate of lead,[58] which he used in his future studies connecting light with magnetism.[59] In his spare time, Faraday continued publishing his experimental work on optics and electromagnetism; he conducted correspondence with scientists whom he had met on his journeys across Europe with Davy, and who were also working on electromagnetism.[60] Two years after the death of Davy, in 1831, he began his great series of experiments in which he discoveredelectromagnetic induction, recording in his laboratory diary on 28 October 1831 that he was "making many experiments with the great magnet of the Royal Society".[61]
A diagram of Faraday's iron ring-coil apparatusBuilt in 1831, theFaraday disc was the firstelectric generator. The horseshoe-shaped magnet(A) created a magnetic field through the disc(D). When the disc was turned, this induced an electric current radially outward from the centre toward the rim. The current flowed out through the sliding spring contactm, through the external circuit, and back into the centre of the disc through the axle.
Faraday's breakthrough came 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.[4] This phenomenon is now known asmutual inductance.[62] The iron ring-coil apparatus is still on display at the Royal Institution. In subsequent experiments, he found that if he moved a magnet through a loop of wire an electric current flowed in that wire. The current also flowed if the loop was moved over a stationary magnet. His demonstrations established that a changing magnetic field produces an electric field; this relation was modelled mathematically byJames Clerk Maxwell asFaraday's law, which subsequently became one of the fourMaxwell equations, and which have in turn evolved into the generalization known today asfield theory.[63] Faraday would later use the principles he had discovered to construct the electricdynamo, the ancestor of modern power generators and the electric motor.[64]
Faraday (right) andJohn Daniell (left), founders of electrochemistry
In 1832, he completed a series of experiments aimed at investigating the fundamental nature of electricity; Faraday used "static",batteries, and "animal electricity" to produce the phenomena of electrostatic attraction,electrolysis,magnetism, etc. He concluded that, contrary to the scientific opinion of the time, the divisions between the various "kinds" of electricity were illusory. Faraday instead proposed that only a single "electricity" exists, and the changing values of quantity and intensity (current and voltage) would produce different groups of phenomena.[4]
Near the end of his career, Faraday proposed that electromagnetic forces extended into the empty space around the conductor.[63] This idea was rejected by his fellow scientists, and Faraday did not live to see the eventual acceptance of his proposition by the scientific community. It would be another half a century before electricity was used in technology, with theWest End'sSavoy Theatre, fitted with theincandescent light bulb developed by SirJoseph Swan, the first public building in the world to be lit by electricity.[65][66] As recorded by theRoyal Institution, "Faraday invented the generator in 1831 but it took nearly 50 years before all the technology, including Joseph Swan's incandescent filament light bulbs used here, came into common use".[67]
Faraday holding a type of glass bar he used in 1845 to show magnetism affects light indielectric material[68]
In 1845, Faraday discovered that many materials exhibit a weak repulsion from a magnetic field: an effect he termeddiamagnetism.[69]
Faraday also discovered that the plane ofpolarization of linearly polarised light can be rotated by the application of an external magnetic field aligned with the direction in which the light is moving. This is now termed theFaraday effect.[63] In Sept 1845 he wrote in his notebook, "I have at last succeeded inilluminating a magnetic curve orline of force and inmagnetising aray of light".[70]
Later on in his life, in 1862, Faraday used a spectroscope to search for a different alteration of light, the change of spectral lines by an applied magnetic field. The equipment available to him was, however, insufficient for a definite determination of spectral change.Pieter Zeeman later used an improved apparatus to study the same phenomenon, publishing his results in 1897 and receiving the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics for his success. In both his 1897 paper[71] and his Nobel acceptance speech, Zeeman made reference to Faraday's work.[72]
In his work on static electricity,Faraday's ice pail experiment demonstrated 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 is because the exterior charges redistribute such that the interior fields emanating from them cancel one another. This shielding effect is used in what is now known as aFaraday cage.[63] In January 1836, Faraday had put a wooden frame, 12 ft square, on four glass supports and added paper walls and wire mesh. He then stepped inside and electrified it. When he stepped out of his electrified cage, Faraday had shown that electricity was a force, not an imponderable fluid as was believed at the time.[5]
Faraday had a long association with theRoyal Institution of Great Britain. He was appointed Assistant Superintendent of the House of the Royal Institution in 1821.[73] He was elected aFellow of theRoyal Society in 1824.[12] In 1825, he became Director of the Laboratory of the Royal Institution.[73] Six years later, in 1833, Faraday became the firstFullerian Professor of Chemistry at theRoyal Institution of Great Britain, a position to which he was appointed for life without the obligation to deliver lectures. His sponsor and mentor wasJohn 'Mad Jack' Fuller, who created the position at the Royal Institution for Faraday.[74]
As a respected scientist in a nation with strong maritime interests, Faraday spent extensive amounts of time on projects such as the construction and operation oflighthouses and protecting the bottoms of ships fromcorrosion. His workshop still stands atTrinity Buoy Wharf above the Chain and Buoy Store, next to London's only lighthouse where he carried out the first experiments in electric lighting for lighthouses.[75]
Faraday was also active in what would now be calledenvironmental science, or engineering. He investigated industrial pollution atSwansea and was consulted on air pollution at theRoyal Mint. In July 1855, Faraday wrote a letter toThe Times on the subject of the foul condition of theRiver Thames, which resulted in an often-reprinted cartoon inPunch. (See alsoThe Great Stink).[9]
Faraday's apparatus for experimental demonstration ofideomotor effect on table-turning
Faraday assisted with the planning and judging of exhibits for theGreat Exhibition of 1851 inHyde Park, London.[76] He also advised theNational Gallery on the cleaning and protection of its art collection, and served on the National Gallery Site Commission in 1857.[77][78] Education was another of Faraday's areas of service; he lectured on the topic in 1854 at the Royal Institution,[79] and, in 1862, he appeared before a Public Schools Commission to give his views on education in Great Britain. Faraday also weighed in negatively on the public's fascination withtable-turning,[80][81]mesmerism, andseances, and in so doing chastised both the public and the nation's educational system.[82]
Before his famous Christmas lectures, Faraday delivered chemistry lectures for the City Philosophical Society from 1816 to 1818 in order to refine the quality of his lectures.[83]
Between 1827 and 1860 at theRoyal Institution in London, Faraday gave a series of nineteenChristmas lectures for young people, a series which continues today. The objective of the lectures was to present science to the general public in the hopes of inspiring them and generating revenue for the Royal Institution. They were notable events on the social calendar among London's gentry. Over the course of several letters to his close friend Benjamin Abbott, Faraday outlined his recommendations on the art of lecturing, writing "a flame should be lighted at the commencement and kept alive with unremitting splendour to the end".[84] His lectures were joyful and juvenile, he delighted in filling soap bubbles with various gasses (in order to determine whether or not they are magnetic), but the lectures were also deeply philosophical. In his lectures he urged his audiences to consider the mechanics of his experiments: "you know very well that ice floats upon water ... Why does the ice float? Think of that, and philosophise".[85] The subjects in his lectures consisted of Chemistry and Electricity, and included: 1841:The Rudiments of Chemistry, 1843:First Principles of Electricity, 1848:The Chemical History of a Candle, 1851:Attractive Forces, 1853:Voltaic Electricity, 1854:The Chemistry of Combustion, 1855:The Distinctive Properties of the Common Metals, 1857:Static Electricity, 1858:The Metallic Properties, 1859:The Various Forces of Matter and their Relations to Each Other.[86]
A building atLondon South Bank University, which houses the institute's electrical engineering departments is named the Faraday Wing, due to its proximity to Faraday's birthplace inNewington Butts. A hall atLoughborough University was named after Faraday in 1960. Near the entrance to its dining hall is a bronze casting, which depicts the symbol of an electricaltransformer, and inside there hangs a portrait, both in Faraday's honour. An eight-storey building at theUniversity of Edinburgh's science & engineering campus is named for Faraday, as is a recently built hall of accommodation atBrunel University, the main engineering building atSwansea University, and the instructional and experimental physics building atNorthern Illinois University. The former UK Faraday Station inAntarctica was named after him.[89]
ARoyal Society of Artsblue plaque, unveiled in 1876, commemorates Faraday at 48 Blandford Street in London's Marylebone district.[94] From 1991 until 2001, Faraday's picture featured on the reverse of Series E £20banknotes issued by theBank of England. He was portrayed conducting a lecture at the Royal Institution with the magneto-electric spark apparatus.[95] In 2002, Faraday was ranked number 22 in theBBC's list of the100 Greatest Britons following a UK-wide vote.[96]
TheFaraday Institute for Science and Religion derives its name from the scientist, who saw his faith as integral to his scientific research. The logo of the institute is also based on Faraday's discoveries. It was created in 2006 by a $2,000,000grant from theJohn Templeton Foundation to carry out academic research, to foster understanding of the interaction between science and religion, and to engage public understanding in both these subject areas.[99][100]
The Faraday Institution, an independent energy storage research institute established in 2017, also derives its name from Michael Faraday.[101] The organisation serves as the UK's primary research programme to advance battery science and technology, education, public engagement and market research.[101]
The writerAldous Huxley wrote about Faraday in an essay entitled,A Night in Pietramala: "He is always the natural philosopher. To discover truth is his sole aim and interest ... even if I could be Shakespeare, I think I should still choose to be Faraday."[103] Calling Faraday her "hero", in a speech to the Royal Society,Margaret Thatcher declared: "The value of his work must be higher than the capitalisation of all the shares on the Stock Exchange!" She borrowed his bust from the Royal Institution and had it placed in the hall of10 Downing Street.[5]
Faraday's books, with the exception ofChemical Manipulation, were collections of scientific papers or transcriptions of lectures.[108] Since his death, Faraday's diary has been published, as have several large volumes of his letters and Faraday's journal from his travels with Davy in 1813–1815.
Faraday, Michael (1827).Chemical Manipulation, Being Instructions to Students in Chemistry. John Murray.2nd ed. 1830,3rd ed. 1842
Faraday, Michael (1932–1936). T. Martin (ed.).Diary. G. Bell.ISBN978-0-7135-0439-2 – published in eight volumes; see also the2009 publication of Faraday's diary
Faraday, Michael (1991). B. Bowers and L. Symons (ed.).Curiosity Perfectly Satisfyed: Faraday's Travels in Europe 1813–1815. Institution of Electrical Engineers.
Faraday, Michael (1991). F.A.J.L. James (ed.).The Correspondence of Michael Faraday. Vol. 1. INSPEC, Inc.ISBN978-0-86341-248-6. – vol. 2, 1993; vol. 3, 1996; vol. 4, 1999
Faraday, Michael (2008). Alice Jenkins (ed.).Michael Faraday's Mental Exercises: An Artisan Essay Circle in Regency London. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
^For a concise account of Faraday's life including his childhood, see pp. 175–183 ofEvery Saturday: A Journal of Choice Reading, Vol III published at Cambridge in 1873 byOsgood & Co.
^The implication is that James discovered job opportunities elsewhere through membership of this sect. James joined the London meeting house on 20 February 1791, and moved his family shortly thereafter. SeeCantor, pp. 57–58.
^The register at St. Faith-in-the-Virgin nearSt. Paul's Cathedral, records 12 June as the date their licence was issued. The witness was Sarah's father, Edward. Their marriage was 16 years prior to the Marriage and Registration Act 1837. SeeCantor, p. 59.
^Faraday, Michael (1821). "On two new Compounds of Chlorine and Carbon, and on a new Compound of Iodine, Carbon, and Hydrogen".Philosophical Transactions.111:47–74.doi:10.1098/rstl.1821.0007.S2CID186212922.
^Faraday, Michael (1859).Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics. London: Richard Taylor and William Francis. pp. 81–84.ISBN978-0-85066-841-4.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
^"The Birth of Nanotechnology". Nanogallery.info. 2006. Retrieved25 July 2007.Faraday made some attempt to explain what was causing the vivid coloration in his gold mixtures, saying that known phenomena seemed to indicate that a mere variation in the size of gold particles gave rise to a variety of resultant colors.
^abMee, Nicholas (2012).Higgs Force: The Symmetry-breaking Force that Makes the World an Interesting Place. p. 55.
^Faraday, Michael (1844).Experimental Researches in Electricity. Vol. 2. Courier Corporation.ISBN978-0-486-43505-3.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) See plate 4.
^Faraday's initial induction lab work occurred in late November 1825. His work was heavily influenced by the ongoing research of fellow European scientists Ampere, Arago, and Oersted as indicated by his diary entries.Cantor, pp. 235–244.
^Gooding, David; Pinch, Trevor; Schaffer, Simon (1989).The Uses of Experiment: Studies in the Natural Sciences. Cambridge University Press.ISBN0-521-33768-2. p. 212.
^Van Valkenburgh (1995).Basic Electricity. Cengage Learning.ISBN0-7906-1041-8. pp. 4–91.
^abcdLives and Times of Great Pioneers in Chemistry (lavoisier to Sanger). World Scientific. 2015. pp. 85, 86.
^"The Savoy Theatre",The Times, 3 October 1881. "An interesting experiment was made at a performance ofPatience yesterday afternoon, when the stage was for the first time lit up by the electric light, which has been used in the auditorium ever since the opening of the Savoy Theatre. The success of the new mode of illumination was complete, and its importance for the development of scenic art can scarcely be overrated. The light was perfectly steady throughout the performance, and the effect was pictorially superior to gas, the colours of the dresses – an important element in the "æsthetic" opera – appearing as true and distinct as by daylight. The Swan incandescent lamps were used, the aid of gaslight being entirely dispensed with".
^Royal Institution of Great Britain; Whewell, William; Faraday, Michael; Latham, Robert Gordon; Daubeny, Charles; Tyndall, John; Paget, James; Hodgson, William Ballantyne; Lankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray) (1917).Science and education; lectures delivered at the Royal institution of Great Britain. Library of Congress. W. Heinemann. pp. 39–74 [51].
Gooding, David; James, Frank A.J.L. (1985).Faraday rediscovered: essays on the life and work of Michael Faraday, 1791–1867. Basingstoke, Hants, England; New York: Macmillan Press; Stockton Press.ISBN978-0-333-39320-8.
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