Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday, FRS was an English scientist
who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism
and electrochemistry. His main discoveries
include those of electromagnetic induction,
diamagnetism and electrolysis.
Although Faraday received little formal education,
he was one of the most influential scientists
in history. It was by his research on the
magnetic field around a conductor carrying
a direct current that Faraday established
the basis for the concept of the electromagnetic
field in physics. Faraday also established
that magnetism could affect rays of light
and that there was an underlying relationship
between the two phenomena. He similarly discovered
the principle of electromagnetic induction,
diamagnetism, and the laws of electrolysis.
His inventions of electromagnetic rotary devices
formed the foundation of electric motor technology,
and it was largely due to his efforts that
electricity became practical for use in technology.
As a chemist, Faraday discovered benzene,
investigated the clathrate hydrate of chlorine,
invented an early form of the Bunsen burner
and the system of oxidation numbers, and popularised
terminology such as anode, cathode, electrode,
and ion. Faraday ultimately became the first
and foremost Fullerian Professor of Chemistry
at the Royal Institution of Great Britain,
a lifetime position.
Faraday was an excellent experimentalist who
conveyed his ideas in clear and simple language;
his mathematical abilities, however, did not
extend as far as trigonometry or any but the
simplest algebra. James Clerk Maxwell took
the work of Faraday and others, and summarized
it in a set of equations that is accepted
as the basis of all modern theories of electromagnetic
phenomena. On Faraday's uses of the lines
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." The SI unit of capacitance, the
farad, is named in his honour.
Albert Einstein kept a picture of Faraday
on his study wall, alongside pictures of Isaac
Newton and James Clerk Maxwell. Physicist
Ernest 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".
Personal life
Early life
Faraday was born in Newington Butts, which
is now part of the London Borough of Southwark,
but which was then a suburban part of Surrey.
His family was not well off; his father, James,
was a member of the Glassite sect of Christianity.
James Faraday moved his wife and two children
to London during the winter of 1790 from Outhgill
in Westmorland, where he had been an apprentice
to the village blacksmith. Michael was born
the autumn of that year. The young Michael
Faraday, who was the third of four children,
having only the most basic school education,
had to educate himself. At fourteen he became
the apprentice to George Riebau, a local bookbinder
and bookseller in Blandford Street. During
his seven-year apprenticeship he read many
books, including Isaac Watts' The Improvement
of the Mind, and he enthusiastically implemented
the principles and suggestions contained therein.
At this time he also developed an interest
in science, especially in electricity. Faraday
was particularly inspired by the book Conversations
on Chemistry by Jane Marcet.
Adult life
In 1812, at the age of twenty, and at the
end of his apprenticeship, Faraday attended
lectures by the eminent English chemist Humphry
Davy of the Royal Institution and Royal Society,
and John Tatum, founder of the City Philosophical
Society. Many of the tickets for these lectures
were given to Faraday by William Dance, who
was one of the founders of the Royal Philharmonic
Society. Faraday subsequently sent Davy a
three-hundred-page book based on notes that
he had taken during these lectures. Davy's
reply was immediate, kind, and favourable.
When Davy damaged his eyesight in an accident
with nitrogen trichloride, he decided to employ
Faraday as a secretary. When one of the Royal
Institution's assistants, John Payne, was
sacked, Sir Humphry Davy was asked to find
a replacement, and 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.
When Davy set out on a long tour of the continent
in 1813–15, his valet did not wish to go.
Instead, Faraday went as Davy's scientific
assistant, and was asked to act as Davy's
valet until a replacement could be found in
Paris. 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 made Faraday so miserable that
he contemplated returning to England alone
and giving up science altogether. The trip
did, however, give him access to the scientific
elite of Europe and exposed him to a host
of stimulating ideas.
Faraday married Sarah Barnard (1800–1879)
on 12 June 1821. They met through their families
at the Sandemanian church, and he confessed
his faith to the Sandemanian congregation
the month after they were married. They had
no children.
Faraday was a devout Christian; his Sandemanian
denomination was an offshoot of the Church
of Scotland. Well after his marriage, 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.
This meeting house was relocated in 1862 to
Barnsbury 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. Biographers
have noted that "a strong sense of the unity
of God and nature pervaded Faraday's life
and work."
Later life
In June 1832, the University of Oxford granted
Faraday a Doctor of Civil Law degree (honorary).
During his lifetime, Faraday rejected a knighthood
and twice refused to become President of the
Royal Society. 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 1848, as a result of representations by
the Prince Consort, Michael Faraday was awarded
a grace and favour house in Hampton Court
in Middlesex, free of all expenses or 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.
When asked by the British government to advise
on the production of chemical weapons for
use in the Crimean War (1853–1856), Faraday
refused to participate citing ethical reasons.
Faraday died at his house at Hampton Court
on 25 August 1867 aged 75 years and 11 months.
He had previously turned down burial in Westminster
Abbey, but he has a memorial plaque there,
near Isaac Newton's tomb. Faraday was interred
in the dissenters' (non-Anglican) section
of Highgate Cemetery. Hirshfeld maintains
in his biography that Faraday suffered from
mental breakdown due to his intellectual exertions
so that he became debilitated by the end of
his life and unable to conduct any meaningful
research.
Scientific achievements
Chemistry
Faraday's earliest chemical work was as an
assistant to Humphry Davy. Faraday was specifically
involved in the study of chlorine; he discovered
two new compounds of chlorine and carbon.
He also conducted the first rough experiments
on the diffusion of gases, a phenomenon that
was first pointed out by John Dalton, and
the physical importance of which was more
fully brought to light by Thomas Graham and
Joseph 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.
Faraday invented an early form of what was
to become the Bunsen burner, which is in practical
use in science laboratories around the world
as a convenient source of heat. Faraday worked
extensively in the field of chemistry, discovering
chemical substances such as benzene (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 and C2Cl4,
and published his results the following year.
Faraday also determined the composition of
the chlorine clathrate hydrate, which had
been discovered by Humphry Davy in 1810. Faraday
is also responsible for discovering the laws
of electrolysis, and for popularizing terminology
such as anode, cathode, electrode, and ion,
terms proposed in large part by William Whewell.
Faraday was the first to report what later
came to be called metallic nanoparticles.
In 1847 he discovered that the optical properties
of gold colloids differed from those of the
corresponding bulk metal. This was probably
the first reported observation of the effects
of quantum size, and might be considered to
be the birth of nanoscience.
Electricity and magnetism
Faraday is best known for his work regarding
electricity and magnetism. His first recorded
experiment was the construction of a voltaic
pile with seven ha'penny coins, stacked together
with seven disks of sheet zinc, and six pieces
of paper moistened with salt water. With this
pile he decomposed sulphate of magnesia (first
letter to Abbott, 12 July 1812).
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".
One of these, now known as the homopolar motor,
caused a continuous circular motion that was
engendered by the circular magnetic force
around a wire that extended into a pool of
mercury 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
the Royal 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.
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.
This experiment followed similar work conducted
with light and magnets three years earlier
that yielded identical results. During the
next seven years, Faraday spent much of his
time perfecting his recipe for optical quality
(heavy) glass, borosilicate of lead, which
he used in his future studies connecting light
with magnetism. 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.
Two years after the death of Davy, in 1831,
he began his great series of experiments in
which he discovered electromagnetic induction,
recording in his laboratory diary on 28 October
1831 he was; "making many experiments with
the great magnet of the Royal Society".
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. This phenomenon is now
known as mutual induction. 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
by James Clerk Maxwell as Faraday's law, which
subsequently became one of the four Maxwell
equations, and which have in turn evolved
into the generalization known today as field
theory. Faraday would later use the principles
he had discovered to construct the electric
dynamo, the ancestor of modern power generators
and the electric motor.
In 1839, 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.
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 the eventual
acceptance of his proposition by the scientific
community. Faraday's concept of lines of flux
emanating from charged bodies and magnets
provided a way to visualize electric and magnetic
fields; that conceptual model was crucial
for the successful development of the electromechanical
devices that dominated engineering and industry
for the remainder of the 19th century.
Diamagnetism
In 1845, Faraday discovered that many materials
exhibit a weak repulsion from a magnetic field:
a phenomenon he termed diamagnetism.
Faraday also discovered that the plane of
polarization of linearly polarized light can
be rotated by the application of an external
magnetic field aligned in the direction which
the light is moving. This is now termed the
Faraday effect. He wrote in his notebook,
"I have at last succeeded in illuminating
a magnetic curve or line of force and in magnetising
a ray of light".
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 and his Nobel acceptance speech, Zeeman
made reference to Faraday's work.
Faraday cage
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 due to them
cancel. This shielding effect is used in what
is now known as a Faraday cage.
Royal Institution and public service
Faraday had a long association with the Royal
Institution of Great Britain. He was appointed
Assistant Superintendent of the House of the
Royal Institution in 1821. He was elected
a member of the Royal Society in 1824. In
1825, he became Director of the Laboratory
of the Royal Institution. Six years later,
in 1833, Faraday became the first Fullerian
Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution
of Great Britain, a position to which he was
appointed for life without the obligation
to deliver lectures. His sponsor and mentor
was John 'Mad Jack' Fuller, who created the
position at the Royal Institution for Faraday.
Beyond his scientific research into areas
such as chemistry, electricity, and magnetism
at the Royal Institution, Faraday undertook
numerous, and often time-consuming, service
projects for private enterprise and the British
government. This work included investigations
of explosions in coal mines, being an expert
witness in court, and along with two engineers
from Chance Brothers c.1853, the preparation
of high-quality optical glass, which was required
by Chance for its lighthouses. In 1846, together
with Charles Lyell, he produced a lengthy
and detailed report on a serious explosion
in the colliery at Haswell County Durham,
which killed 95 miners. Their report was a
meticulous forensic investigation and indicated
that coal dust contributed to the severity
of the explosion. The report should have warned
coal owners of the hazard of coal dust explosions,
but the risk was ignored for over 60 years
until the Senghenydd Colliery Disaster of
1913.
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 of light houses and protecting
the bottoms of ships from corrosion. His workshop
still stands at Trinity 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.
Faraday was also active in what would now
be called environmental science, or engineering.
He investigated industrial pollution at Swansea
and was consulted on air pollution at the
Royal Mint. In July 1855, Faraday wrote a
letter to The Times on the subject of the
foul condition of the River Thames, which
resulted in an oft-reprinted cartoon in Punch.
(See also The Great Stink.)
Faraday assisted with the planning and judging
of exhibits for the Great Exhibition of 1851
in London. He also advised the National Gallery
on the cleaning and protection of its art
collection, and served on the National Gallery
Site Commission in 1857.
Education was another of Faraday's areas of
service; he lectured on the topic in 1854
at the Royal Institution, 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 with table-turning, mesmerism,
and seances, and in so doing chastised both
the public and the nation's educational system.
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.
Between 1827 and 1860 at the Royal Institution
in London, Faraday gave a series of nineteen
Christmas lectures for young people, a series
which continues today. The objective of Faraday’s
Christmas 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: Faraday
wrote “a flame should be lighted at the
commencement and kept alive with unremitting
splendour to the end”. 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)
in front of his audiences and marveled at
the rich colors of polarized lights, 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”.
His subjects included:
1827 Chemistry
1829 Electricity
1832 Chemistry
1835 Electricity
1837 Chemistry
1841 The Rudiments of Chemistry
1843 First Principles of Electricity
1845 The Rudiments of Chemistry
1848 The Chemical History of a Candle
1851 Attractive Forces
1852 Chemistry
1853 Voltaic Electricity
1854 The Chemistry of Combustion
1855 The Distinctive Properties of the Common
Metals
1856 Attractive Forces
1857 Static Electricity
1858 The Metallic Properties
1859 The Various Forces of Matter and their
Relations to Each Other
1860 The Chemical History of a Candle
Commemorations
A statue of Faraday stands in Savoy Place,
London, outside the Institution of Engineering
and Technology. Also in London, the Michael
Faraday Memorial, designed by brutalist architect
Rodney Gordon and completed in 1961, is at
the Elephant & Castle gyratory system, near
Faraday's birthplace at Newington Butts. Faraday
School is located on Trinity Buoy Wharf where
his workshop still stands above the Chain
and Buoy Store, next to London's only lighthouse.
Faraday Gardens is a small park in Walworth,
London, not far from his birthplace at Newington
Butts. This park lies within the local council
ward of Faraday in the London Borough of Southwark.
Michael Faraday Primary school is situated
on the Aylesbury Estate in Walworth.
A building at London South Bank University,
which houses the institute's electrical engineering
departments is named the Faraday Wing, due
to its proximity to Faraday's birthplace in
Newington Butts. A hall at Loughborough University
was named after Faraday in 1960. Near the
entrance to its dining hall is a bronze casting,
which depicts the symbol of an electrical
transformer, and inside there hangs a portrait,
both in Faraday's honour. An eight-story building
at the University of Edinburgh's science & engineering
campus is named for Faraday, as is a recently
built hall of accommodation at Brunel University,
the main engineering building at Swansea University,
and the instructional and experimental physics
building at Northern Illinois University.
The former UK Faraday Station in Antarctica
was named after him.
Streets named for Faraday can be found in
many British cities (e.g., London, Fife, Swindon,
Basingstoke, Nottingham, Whitby, Kirkby, Crawley,
Newbury, Swansea, Aylesbury and Stevenage)
as well as in France (Paris), Germany (Hermsdorf),
Canada (Quebec; Deep River, Ontario; Ottawa,
Ontario), and the United States (Reston, Virginia).
A Royal Society of Arts blue plaque, unveiled
in 1876, commemorates Faraday at 48 Blandford
Street in London's Marylebone district. From
1991 until 2001, Faraday's picture featured
on the reverse of Series E £20 banknotes
issued by the Bank of England. He was shown
conducting a lecture at the Royal Institution
with the magneto-electric spark apparatus.
In 2002, Faraday was ranked number 22 in the
BBC's list of the 100 Greatest Britons following
a UK-wide vote.
The Faraday 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 $2,000,000 grant from the John 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.
Bibliography
Faraday's books, with the exception of Chemical
Manipulation, were collections of scientific
papers or transcriptions of lectures. 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 (1839, 1844). Experimental
Researches in Electricity, vols. i. and ii..
Richard and John Edward Taylor.  Check date
values in: |date= (help); vol. iii. Richard
Taylor and William Francis, 1855
Faraday, Michael (1859). Experimental Researches
in Chemistry and Physics. Taylor and Francis.
ISBN 0-85066-841-7.
Faraday, Michael (1861). W. Crookes, ed. A
Course of Six Lectures on the Chemical History
of a Candle. Griffin, Bohn & Co. ISBN 1-4255-1974-1.
Faraday, Michael (1873). W. Crookes, ed. On
the Various Forces in Nature. Chatto and Windus.
Faraday, Michael (1932–1936). T. Martin,
ed. Diary. ISBN 0-7135-0439-0.  – published
in eight volumes; see also the 2009 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
1. INSPEC, Inc. ISBN 0-86341-248-3.  – 
volume 2, 1993; volume 3, 1996; volume 4,
1999
Faraday, Michael (2008). Alice Jenkins, ed.
Michael Faraday's Mental Exercises: An Artisan
Essay Circle in Regency London. Liverpool,
UK: Liverpool University Press.
Course of six lectures on the various forces
of matter, and their relations to each other
London; Glasgow: R. Griffin, 1860.
The Liquefaction of Gases, Edinburgh: W. F.
Clay, 1896.
The letters of Faraday and Schoenbein 1836–1862.
With notes, comments and references to contemporary
letters London: Williams & Norgate 1899. (Digital
edition by the University and State Library
Düsseldorf)
