Faraday, Michael

Michael (1791-1867), a distinguished English chemist. His father was a blacksmith near London. He was apprenticed at an early age to a book binder, an occupation which gave him opportunity to read. Young Michael had few opportunities for an education, but managed to attend a series of poular lectures on chemistry given by Sir Humphry Davy. Faraday's notes attracted the lecturer's attention. To the young man's great delight, he was engaged as an assistant and traveled about setting up apparatus and getting everything ready for the lecture. Sir Humphry, the most noted chemist of the day, was wont to declare that his greatest discovery was "Mike" Faraday. Under his master's instruction, Faraday was the first to condense gases into liquids by pressure. He succeeded Sir Humphry as professor of chemistry in the Royal Institute. Among his most noted publications are his Lectures on the Chemical History of a Candle. He also contributed to the study of glaciers, heat, ice, electricity, and magnetism. He is said to have contributed something new to almost every department of physics. As a lecturer he was very successful by reason of his charm of manner, simplicity of style, and facility in illustration. The great work of his life was a series of Experimental Researches on Electricity, published in Philosophical Transactions. See Davy