Michael Faraday

Michael Faraday was born near London, the son of a poor blacksmith, and had little schooling. At fourteen he was apprenticed to a bookbinder and read the science books he bound. In 1812 he attended lectures by the chemist Humphry Davy, wrote them up carefully and sent them to Davy, who hired him as a laboratory assistant at the Royal Institution. Faraday became one of the greatest experimental scientists in history. In 1821 he built the first device to turn electricity into continuous motion, an early electric motor. In 1831 he discovered electromagnetic induction, showing that moving a magnet near a coil of wire produces an electric current, the principle behind generators and transformers. He discovered benzene, the laws of electrolysis, and the effect of magnetism on light, and he imagined invisible lines of force around magnets that later inspired James Clerk Maxwell. He began the Royal Institution's Christmas Lectures for young people, including The Chemical History of a Candle. A devout member of a small Christian sect, the Sandemanians, he refused a knighthood. He died in 1867.

Michael Faraday is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: A lifelong member of a small Christian sect, the Sandemanians, which he joined by a profession of faith in 1821. Source: Dictionary of National Biography (1885–1900) (via Wikisource)