Michael Faraday, a blacksmith's son, was born September 22, 1791, some 227 years ago. His contributions to science, especially to the study of electricity, combine to make him one of the most groundbreaking and consequential scientists of the modern era and in history. His association with the Royal Institution of Great Britain -- where he became the first Fullerian Professor of Chemistry (a life appointment, without need of having to give any lectures) -- is notable, as is the fact that Albert Einstein himself kept a picture of Faraday on his study's wall (along with those of Isaac Newton and James Clerk Maxwell).
As well, the great physicist Ernest Rutherford noted of Faraday: "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 Faraday, one of the greatest scientific discoverers of all time."
Growing up, the British Faraday had received only a very basic formal education, but he was lucky enough at the age of 14 to be apprenticed to a kindly bookbinder and bookseller, which gave him the opportunity to read all the science-oriented books in his master's shop (and there were a great many). What he learned, through self-education, opened his eyes enormously and his discoveries eventually benefited civilization to an amazing extent.
By age 20, Faraday's acumen and keen eye for science had impressed Britain's leading scientist-inventor of the day, Humphrey Davy, who hired him on as his scientific assistant -- a position that normally went only to formally well-educated men, which Faraday was not. Davy's reasons for taking on the super-bright Faraday vary according to the historian relating them, but it's to his credit that he did, in fact, give the young man a chance to associate himself with the scientific and public elite of British society of the day.
Davy's wife (of whom we can say was an upper-crust snob), however, insisted that Faraday also take on the role of Davy's valet while the couple were on an extended tour of Europe (or, "the Continent," as she would have called it ;-), a task no typical scientific assistant -- who also was well-treated by his employer -- would have been directed to perform. Davy's wife, keen on keeping the lowborn Faraday in his place, also saw to it that he would sleep and eat with the servants.
Such slights, though, didn't stop Faraday from achieving not only a large array scientific breakthroughs but also fame and renown, surpassing even Davy himself. His experiments with electromagnetism and electrochemistry, for example, were groundbreaking. Because of Faraday's painstaking efforts electricity became a practical source of energy able to fuel the new technologies that grew up around it. Through his work, it went from being a curiosity of no discernible practical value, at the time, to being one of the most vitally important phenomena in history, one that powers our lives in every aspect to this very day and without which our current (see what I did there?) standard of living would simply not be possible.
As he became more ever more famous, Faraday was constantly called upon to give public lectures, where he always tried to describe the beauty of the natural world he saw all around him. His lecture notes in this regard are invaluable. "I am not a poet," they read, "but if you think for yourselves, as I proceed, the facts will form a poem in your mind."
The poetry of our lives, lived under the warm glow of lighting and enabled by machines powered by electricity, is due to Michael Faraday, a blacksmith's son of no serious formal education but who saw actions in the natural world that no one else at the time, and no matter how well-educated they were, could see.
"Politics is just show business for ugly people."
As well, the great physicist Ernest Rutherford noted of Faraday: "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 Faraday, one of the greatest scientific discoverers of all time."
Growing up, the British Faraday had received only a very basic formal education, but he was lucky enough at the age of 14 to be apprenticed to a kindly bookbinder and bookseller, which gave him the opportunity to read all the science-oriented books in his master's shop (and there were a great many). What he learned, through self-education, opened his eyes enormously and his discoveries eventually benefited civilization to an amazing extent.
By age 20, Faraday's acumen and keen eye for science had impressed Britain's leading scientist-inventor of the day, Humphrey Davy, who hired him on as his scientific assistant -- a position that normally went only to formally well-educated men, which Faraday was not. Davy's reasons for taking on the super-bright Faraday vary according to the historian relating them, but it's to his credit that he did, in fact, give the young man a chance to associate himself with the scientific and public elite of British society of the day.
Davy's wife (of whom we can say was an upper-crust snob), however, insisted that Faraday also take on the role of Davy's valet while the couple were on an extended tour of Europe (or, "the Continent," as she would have called it ;-), a task no typical scientific assistant -- who also was well-treated by his employer -- would have been directed to perform. Davy's wife, keen on keeping the lowborn Faraday in his place, also saw to it that he would sleep and eat with the servants.
Such slights, though, didn't stop Faraday from achieving not only a large array scientific breakthroughs but also fame and renown, surpassing even Davy himself. His experiments with electromagnetism and electrochemistry, for example, were groundbreaking. Because of Faraday's painstaking efforts electricity became a practical source of energy able to fuel the new technologies that grew up around it. Through his work, it went from being a curiosity of no discernible practical value, at the time, to being one of the most vitally important phenomena in history, one that powers our lives in every aspect to this very day and without which our current (see what I did there?) standard of living would simply not be possible.
As he became more ever more famous, Faraday was constantly called upon to give public lectures, where he always tried to describe the beauty of the natural world he saw all around him. His lecture notes in this regard are invaluable. "I am not a poet," they read, "but if you think for yourselves, as I proceed, the facts will form a poem in your mind."
The poetry of our lives, lived under the warm glow of lighting and enabled by machines powered by electricity, is due to Michael Faraday, a blacksmith's son of no serious formal education but who saw actions in the natural world that no one else at the time, and no matter how well-educated they were, could see.
"Politics is just show business for ugly people."
