Michael Faraday

Michael Faraday was born in the village of Newington, Sussex, England, on Thursday, 22 September 1791. He was the third of four children. Shortly after his birth his family moved to West London, where Michael grew up. The family were devout Christians and worshipped at a small chapel four kilometres away. Poor health prevented Michael’s father, a blacksmith, from working full-time, which caused financial hardship.

After less than two years of formal education, Michael left school. When aged about 11, he became an errand boy for a bookbinder. When he turned 14, he began an apprenticeship as a bookbinder. By spending his spare moments reading some of the books he was binding, Michael took advantage of a great opportunity to educate himself. He became fascinated with science, especially chemistry and electricity. He began to reproduce some of the experiments about which he was reading. Bookbinding had trained him to become skilful at using his hands, which greatly helped him manipulate scientific apparatus.

Michael began attending weekly science lectures. He kept detailed notes and bound these notes into beautiful notebooks. The lectures he attended included a series at the Royal Institution by Sir Humphry Davy, the famous chemist who later invented the coalminer’s safety lamp. (The Royal Institution had been set up to help increase public awareness of useful scientific inventions and everyday applications of science.) On completion of his apprenticeship, Michael sought a job in science. He used his beautifully bound notes of Sir Humphry’s lectures to convince Sir Humphry of his serious commitment to science. In 1813 he was hired when a laboratory assistant’s position became available. Michael Faraday’s scientific career had begun.

Faraday’s scientific abilities quickly became apparent to those around him at the Royal Institution. Instead of merely preparing equipment and chemicals, he was soon assisting in the demonstrations at Sir Humphry Davy’s public lectures as well. By the time Davy left on a scientific tour of Europe six months later, he considered Faraday indispensable and took him along. The trip lasted two years and was extremely rewarding scientifically for Faraday. As well as learning a great deal, he met many famous scientists, including Ampere and Volta, after whom the electrical units amp and volt were later named.

A Discovery....

On returning to England in 1815, Faraday was re-employed by the Royal Institution. He became increasingly involved in chemical analyses. He conducted research on steel, making improvements in steel alloys. Faraday became the first person to liquefy chlorine. He discovered a new substance which was later called benzene. Benzene was subsequently found to be important in the manufacture of many useful organic compounds such as dyes, nylon and plastics. Faraday also produced some new types of glass in an attempt to improve telescope lenses.

Electricity:How it began???

Even while Faraday was spending most of his research time on chemistry, his interest in electricity continued. In 1820, Danish scientist Hans Oersted showed that an electric current flowing through a wire produces a magnetic field around the wire. The following year, Faraday extended Oersted’s work by showing that the current could be made to make a magnet move around the wire or make the wire move around the magnet. This electromagnetic rotation was the forerunner of the electric motor.¹

In that same year, 1821, Faraday was accepted as a member of the Royal Society—the professional body where the foremost scientists exchanged discoveries and ideas. Also that year, he married Sarah Barnard, a member of his church.

To that time, experiments had shown that electricity produced magnetism. Despite the disbelief of many scientists, Faraday believed that the reverse should also be true—magnetism should be able to produce electricity. Faraday successfully showed this in 1831. Englishman William Sturgeon wound the current-carrying wire into a coil around a U-shaped piece of iron, thereby strengthening the magnetic effect of the current. American scientist Joseph Henry then insulated the wire, further improving the magnetic field. By making the iron into a complete ring and winding another coil of insulated wire on the other side, Faraday produced one of his greatest inventions—the transformer. When an electric current was turned on and off in one circuit, it caused a changing magnetic field which produced an electric current with a different voltage in the other circuit.

Because electricity is generated and transmitted at high voltages and must be converted to lower voltages before it is safe for domestic use, the transformer is an indispensable part of the modern power supply network.

Next, Faraday sought to generate electricity from magnetism without first starting with electricity. He created a changing magnetic field by moving a bar magnet in and out of a hollow coil of insulated wire. As in the transformer, the changing magnetic field produced an electric current. This discovery made possible electric power generation as we know it today.

Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature and in such things as these, experiment is the best test of such consistency.

Michael Faraday

The more we study the work of Faraday with the perspective of time, the more we are impressed by his unrivalled genius as an experimenter and a natural philosopher. When we consider the magnitude and extent of his discoveries and their influence on the progress of science and industry, there is no honour too great to pay to the memory of Michael Faraday - one of the greatest discoverers of all time.                    

                                                                                   Ernest rutherford

                               

                                        

Hey guys!!

This is the fourth article in the series: The greatest Physicists of all time.....

The first three were:

1.Sir Isaac Newton.

2.Albert Einstein.

3.Erwin Schrodinger.

Please check these ones also.These are very inspirational. Please leave ur comments...............