Michael Faraday was born on 22 September 1791 in Newington Butts, the son of a Sandemanian blacksmith.
Michael Faraday was born on 22 September 1791 in Newington Butts, the son of a Sandemanian blacksmith. ◦
Having only the most basic school education, he became an apprentice to the local bookbinder George Riebau at the age of 14, and voraciously read the scientific works that came through the shop to educate himself. ◦
He was a devout member of the Sandemanian Church, a small Christian sect that organised daily life through a literal interpretation of the Bible. ◦
Faraday was appointed Assistant Superintendent of the House of the Royal Institution in 1821 and Director of the Laboratory in 1825, and six years later the Fullerian Professorship of Chemistry was created for him. ◦
He was twice offered the Presidency of the Royal Society but declined on both occasions. ◦
He turned down a knighthood on religious grounds, believing it was against the word of the Bible. ◦
Faraday stated to a publisher, "I have always loved science more than money." ◦
He believed self-education, which consists in teaching the mind to resist its desires and inclinations until they are proved to be right, is the most important of all, not only in things of natural philosophy but in every department of daily life. ◦
He saw the great internal conflict as the tendency to deceive ourselves regarding all we wish for and the necessity of resistance to these desires. ◦
A strong sense of the unity of God and nature pervaded his life and work, motivating his search for relationships uniting electricity, magnetism, and gravity. ◦
On holding theories loosely, he said, "Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature," and elsewhere insisted, "Without experiment I am nothing." ◦
He wrote that "Nature is our kindest friend and best critic in experimental science if we only allow her intimations to fall unbiased on our minds." ◦
He described his research discipline in three words: "Work. Finish. Publish." ◦
When a young aspirant asked him the secret of his success, he replied that it was comprised in three words, "Work, Finish, Publish." ◦
He observed that "The world little knows how many of the thoughts and theories which have passed through the mind of a scientific investigator have been crushed in silence and secrecy by his own severe criticism and adverse examination." ◦
Faraday refused to participate when asked to develop chemical weapons during the Crimean War, citing ethical reasons. ◦
He turned down a knighthood on religious grounds, believing it was against the word of the Bible. ◦
He declined the Presidency of the Royal Society on both occasions when offered. ◦
He believed in teaching the mind to resist its desires and inclinations until they are proved to be right, viewing the tendency to deceive ourselves regarding all we wish for as a great internal conflict. ◦
He noted that many thoughts and theories passing through a scientific investigator's mind are crushed in silence and secrecy by his own severe criticism and adverse examination. ◦
Faraday saw the "lines of force" revealed by sprinkling iron filings on a card held over a magnet as lines of tension in the surrounding medium. ◦
Rather than viewing electricity as a material fluid flowing through wires like water through a pipe, he thought of it as a vibration or force transmitted through tensions created in the conductor. ◦
He thought and sensed the physical world in a visual manner, rather than in words or symbols. ◦
A strong sense of the unity of God and nature pervaded his life and work, motivating his search for relationships uniting electricity, magnetism, and gravity. ◦
Faraday was an experimentalist whose main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism, and electrolysis. ◦
He also discovered benzene and carbon tetrachloride, and in 1845 found that many materials exhibit a weak repulsion from a magnetic field. ◦
His major discoveries include electro-magnetic rotations (1821), benzene (1825), electro-magnetic induction (1831), and the magneto-optical effect and diamagnetism (both 1845), thereafter formulating the field theory of electro-magnetism. ◦
His mathematical abilities did not extend as far as trigonometry and were limited to the simplest algebra. ◦
James 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. ◦
In the mid 1820s he founded both the Friday Evening Discourses and the Christmas Lectures and delivered many lectures in both series himself. ◦
Faraday conveyed his ideas in clear and simple language. ◦
He thought and sensed the physical world in a visual manner, rather than in words or symbols. ◦
On the lecturer's duty, he held that "The lecturer should give the audience full reason to believe that all his powers have been exerted for their pleasure and instruction." ◦
He told audiences, "I am no poet, but if you think for yourselves, as I proceed, the facts will form a poem in your minds." ◦
He chose the candle as a teaching subject because, in his words, "There is no better, there is no more open door by which you can enter into the study of natural philosophy, than by considering the physical phenomena of a candle," adding that "There is not a law under which any part of this universe is governed which does not come into play, and is touched upon in these phenomena." ◦
His mathematical abilities did not extend as far as trigonometry and were limited to the simplest algebra, yet he formulated the field theory of electro-magnetism. ◦ ◦
James Clerk Maxwell later took this work and summarised it in a set of equations accepted as the basis of all modern theories of electromagnetic phenomena. ◦
He professed a research discipline of "Work. Finish. Publish." ◦
He also observed that "The world little knows how many of the thoughts and theories which have passed through the mind of a scientific investigator have been crushed in silence and secrecy by his own severe criticism and adverse examination." ◦
A strong sense of the unity of God and nature pervaded his life and work, while he simultaneously organised daily life through a literal interpretation of the Bible. ◦
He valued doing over talking, stating, "I have far more confidence in the one man who works mentally and bodily at a matter than in the six who merely talk about it." ◦
He advised thinking for oneself, telling audiences, "I am no poet, but if you think for yourselves, as I proceed, the facts will form a poem in your minds." ◦
He recommended allowing nature's intimations to fall unbiased on the mind, writing that "Nature is our kindest friend and best critic in experimental science if we only allow her intimations to fall unbiased on our minds." ◦
He suggested entering the study of natural philosophy by considering the physical phenomena of a candle. ◦