Michael Faraday

Michael Faraday FRS (/ˈfærədeɪ, -di/;

22 September 1791 – 25 August
1867) was a British scientist who
contributed to the study of
electromagnetism and
electrochemistry. His main
discoveries include the principles
underlying electromagnetic induction,
diamagnetism and electrolysis.
 Michael Faraday

Michael Faraday, 1842, by Thomas Phillips

Born 22 September 1791

Newington Butts,
England

Died 25 August 1867

(aged 75)
Hampton Court,
Middlesex, England

Residence United Kingdom

Nationality British
Known for Faraday's law of
induction
Electrochemistry
Faraday effect
Faraday cage
Faraday constant
Faraday cup
Faraday's laws of
electrolysis
Faraday paradox
Faraday rotator
Faraday-efficiency
effect
Faraday wave
Faraday wheel
Lines of force

Awards Royal Medal (1835

and 1846)
 Copley Medal (1832
and 1838)
Rumford Medal
(1846)
Albert Medal (1866)
Scientific career

Fields Physics
Chemistry

Institutions Royal Institution

Influences Humphry Davy

William Thomas
Brande

Signature
Faraday's Laboratory at the Royal Institution
(1870 engraving)

Although Faraday received little

formal education, he was one of the
most influential scientists in history. It
was by his research on the magnetic
field around a conductor carrying a
direct current that Faraday
established the basis for the concept
of the electromagnetic field in
physics. Faraday also established that
magnetism could affect rays of light
and that there was an underlying
relationship between the two
phenomena.[1][2] He similarly
discovered the principles of
electromagnetic induction and
diamagnetism, and the laws of
electrolysis. His inventions of
electromagnetic rotary devices
formed the foundation of electric
motor technology, and it was largely
due to his efforts that electricity
became practical for use in
technology.

As a chemist, Faraday discovered

benzene, investigated the clathrate
hydrate of chlorine, invented an early
form of the Bunsen burner and the
system of oxidation numbers, and
popularised terminology such as
"anode", "cathode", "electrode" and
"ion". Faraday ultimately became the
first and foremost Fullerian Professor
of Chemistry at the Royal Institution, a
lifetime position.

Faraday was an excellent

experimentalist who conveyed his
ideas in clear and simple language;
his mathematical abilities, however,
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
summarized it in a set of equations
which is accepted as the basis of all
modern theories of electromagnetic
phenomena. On Faraday's uses of
lines of force, Maxwell wrote that they
show Faraday "to have been in reality
a mathematician of a very high order
– one from whom the
mathematicians of the future may
derive valuable and fertile methods."[3]
The SI unit of capacitance is named in
his honour: the farad.

Albert Einstein kept a picture of

Faraday on his study wall, alongside
pictures of Isaac Newton and James
Clerk Maxwell.[4] Physicist Ernest
Rutherford stated, "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
the memory of Faraday, one of the
greatest scientific discoverers of all
time."[5]

Personal life
Early life

Michael Faraday was born on 22

September 1791 in
"How
Newington Butts,[7] which fortunate
is now part of the London for
Borough of Southwark civilizatio
but was then a suburban n, that

part of Surrey.[8] His Beethove

n,
family was not well off.
Michelan
His father, James, was a
gelo,
member of the Glassite
Galileo
sect of Christianity. and
James Faraday moved Faraday
his wife and two children were not
to London during the required
by law to
winter of 1790 from
attend
Outhgill in Westmorland,
schools
where he had been an
apprentice to the village where

blacksmith.[9] Michael their total

personali
was born in the autumn
ties
of that year. The young
would
Michael Faraday, who
have
was the third of four been
children, having only the operated
most basic school upon to
education, had to make

educate himself.[10] them

learn
At the age of 14 he acceptab

became an apprentice to le ways

of
George Riebau, a local
participat
bookbinder and
ing as
bookseller in Blandford members
Street.[11] During his of “the

seven-year group."

apprenticeship Faraday —Joel H.

read many books, Hildebra
nd's
including Isaac Watts's
Educatio
The Improvement of the
n for
Mind, and he
Creativity
enthusiastically in the
implemented the Sciences
principles and speech
suggestions contained at New

therein.[12] He also York

Universit
developed an interest in
y, 1963.[6]
science, especially in
electricity. Faraday was
particularly inspired by the book
Conversations on Chemistry by Jane
Marcet.[13][14]

Adult life

Portrait of Faraday in his late thirties, ca. 1826

In 1812, at the age of 20 and at the

end of his apprenticeship, Faraday
attended lectures by the eminent
English chemist Humphry Davy of the
Royal Institution and the Royal
Society, and John Tatum, founder of
the City Philosophical Society. Many
of the tickets for these lectures were
given to Faraday by William Dance,
who was one of the founders of the
Royal Philharmonic Society. Faraday
subsequently sent Davy a 300-page
book based on notes that he had
taken during these lectures. Davy's
reply was immediate, kind, and
favourable. In 1813, when Davy
damaged his eyesight in an accident
with nitrogen trichloride, he decided to
employ Faraday as an assistant.
Coincidentally one of the Royal
Institution's assistants, John Payne,
was sacked and Sir Humphry Davy
had been asked to find a replacement;
thus he appointed Faraday as
Chemical Assistant at the Royal
Institution on 1 March 1813.[1] Very
soon Davy entrusted Faraday with the
preparation of nitrogen trichloride
samples, and they both were injured
in an explosion of this very sensitive
substance.[15]
Michael Faraday, ca. 1861, aged about 70.

In the class-based English society of

the time, Faraday was not considered
a gentleman. When Davy set out on a
long tour of the continent in 1813–15,
his valet did not wish to go, so
instead, Faraday went as Davy's
scientific assistant and was asked to
act as Davy's valet until a replacement
could be found in Paris. Faraday was
forced to fill the role of valet as well
as assistant throughout the trip.
Davy's wife, Jane Apreece, refused to
treat Faraday as an equal (making
him travel outside the coach, eat with
the servants, etc.), and made Faraday
so miserable that he contemplated
returning to England alone and giving
up science altogether. The trip did,
however, give him access to the
scientific elite of Europe and exposed
him to a host of stimulating ideas.[1]

Faraday married Sarah Barnard

(1800–1879) on 12 June 1821.[16]
They met through their families at the
Sandemanian church, and he
confessed his faith to the
Sandemanian congregation the
month after they were married. They
had no children.[7]

Faraday was a devout Christian; his

Sandemanian denomination was an
offshoot of the Church of Scotland.
Well after his marriage, he served as
deacon and for two terms as an elder
in the meeting house of his youth. His
church was located at Paul's Alley in
the Barbican. This meeting house
relocated in 1862 to Barnsbury Grove,
Islington; this North London location
was where Faraday served the final
two years of his second term as elder
prior to his resignation from that
post.[17][18] Biographers have noted
that "a strong sense of the unity of
God and nature pervaded Faraday's
life and work."[19]

Later life

Three Fellows of the Royal Society offering the

presidency to Faraday, 1857
In June 1832, the University of Oxford
granted Faraday a Doctor of Civil Law
degree (honorary). During his lifetime,
he was offered a knighthood in
recognition for his services to
science, which he turned down on
religious grounds, believing that it was
against the word of the Bible to
accumulate riches and pursue worldly
reward, and stating that he preferred
to remain "plain Mr Faraday to the
end".[20] Elected a member of the
Royal Society in 1824, he twice
refused to become President.[21] He
became the first Fullerian Professor
of Chemistry at the Royal Institution in
1833.[22]

In 1832, Faraday was elected a

Foreign Honorary Member of the
American Academy of Arts and
Sciences.[23] He was elected a foreign
member of the Royal Swedish
Academy of Sciences in 1838, and
was one of eight foreign members
elected to the French Academy of
Sciences in 1844.[24] In 1849 he was
elected as associated member to the
Royal Institute of the Netherlands,
which two years later became the
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts
and Sciences and he was
subsequently made foreign
member.[25]

Michael Faraday's grave at Highgate Cemetery,

London

Faraday suffered a nervous

breakdown in 1839 but eventually
returned to his investigations into
electromagnetism.[26] In 1848, as a
result of representations by the Prince
Consort, Faraday was awarded a
grace and favour house in Hampton
Court in Middlesex, free of all
expenses and upkeep. This was the
Master Mason's House, later called
Faraday House, and now No. 37
Hampton Court Road. In 1858
Faraday retired to live there.[27]

Having provided a number of various

service projects for the British
government, when asked by the
government to advise on the
production of chemical weapons for
use in the Crimean War (1853–1856),
Faraday refused to participate citing
ethical reasons.[28]

Faraday died at his house at Hampton

Court on 25 August 1867, aged 75.[29]
He had some years before turned
down an offer of burial in
Westminster Abbey upon his death,
but he has a memorial plaque there,
near Isaac Newton's tomb. Faraday
was interred in the dissenters' (non-
Anglican) section of Highgate
Cemetery.

Scientific achievements
Chemistry
 

Equipment used by Faraday to make glass on

display at the Royal Institution in London

Faraday's earliest chemical work was

as an assistant to Humphry Davy.
Faraday was specifically involved in
the study of chlorine; he discovered
two new compounds of chlorine and
carbon. He also conducted the first
rough experiments on the diffusion of
gases, a phenomenon that was first
pointed out by John Dalton. The
physical importance of this
phenomenon was more fully revealed
by Thomas Graham and Joseph
Loschmidt. Faraday succeeded in
liquefying several gases, investigated
the alloys of steel, and produced
several new kinds of glass intended
for optical purposes. A specimen of
one of these heavy glasses
subsequently became historically
important; when the glass was placed
in a magnetic field Faraday
determined the rotation of the plane
of polarisation of light. This specimen
was also the first substance found to
be repelled by the poles of a magnet.

Faraday invented an early form of

what was to become the Bunsen
burner, which is in practical use in
science laboratories around the world
as a convenient source of heat.[30][31]
Faraday worked extensively in the
field of chemistry, discovering
chemical substances such as
benzene (which he called bicarburet
of hydrogen) and liquefying gases
such as chlorine. The liquefying of
gases helped to establish that gases
are the vapours of liquids possessing
a very low boiling point and gave a
more solid basis to the concept of
molecular aggregation. In 1820
Faraday reported the first synthesis of
compounds made from carbon and
chlorine, C2Cl6 and C2Cl4, and
published his results the following
year.[32][33][34] Faraday also
determined the composition of the
chlorine clathrate hydrate, which had
been discovered by Humphry Davy in
1810.[35][36] Faraday is also
responsible for discovering the laws
of electrolysis, and for popularizing
terminology such as anode, cathode,
electrode, and ion, terms proposed in
large part by William Whewell.[37]

Faraday was the first to report what

later came to be called metallic
nanoparticles. In 1847 he discovered
that the optical properties of gold
colloids differed from those of the
corresponding bulk metal. This was
probably the first reported
observation of the effects of quantum
size, and might be considered to be
the birth of nanoscience.[38]

Electricity and magnetism

Faraday is best known for his work

regarding electricity and magnetism.
His first recorded experiment was the
construction of a voltaic pile with
seven ha'penny coins, stacked
together with seven disks of sheet
zinc, and six pieces of paper
moistened with salt water. With this
pile he decomposed sulfate of
magnesia (first letter to Abbott, 12
July 1812).

Electromagnetic rotation experiment of Faraday,

Electromagnetic rotation experiment of Faraday,
ca. 1821[39]

In 1821, soon after the Danish

physicist and chemist Hans Christian
Ørsted discovered the phenomenon
of electromagnetism, Davy and British
scientist William Hyde Wollaston tried,
but failed, to design an electric
motor.[2] Faraday, having discussed
the problem with the two men, went
on to build two devices to produce
what he called "electromagnetic
rotation". One of these, now known as
the homopolar motor, caused a
continuous circular motion that was
engendered by the circular magnetic
force around a wire that extended into
a pool of mercury wherein was placed
a magnet; the wire would then rotate
around the magnet if supplied with
current from a chemical battery.
These experiments and inventions
formed the foundation of modern
electromagnetic technology. In his
excitement, Faraday published results
without acknowledging his work with
either Wollaston or Davy. The
resulting controversy within the Royal
Society strained his mentor
relationship with Davy and may well
have contributed to Faraday's
assignment to other activities, which
consequently prevented his
involvement in electromagnetic
research for several years.[40][41]

One of Faraday's 1831 experiments

demonstrating induction. The liquid battery
(right) sends an electric current through the
small coil (A). When it is moved in or out of the
large coil (B), its magnetic field induces a
momentary voltage in the coil, which is detected
by the galvanometer (G).

From his initial discovery in 1821,

Faraday continued his laboratory
work, exploring electromagnetic
properties of materials and
developing requisite experience. In
1824, Faraday briefly set up a circuit
to study whether a magnetic field
could regulate the flow of a current in
an adjacent wire, but he found no
such relationship.[42] This experiment
followed similar work conducted with
light and magnets three years earlier
that yielded identical results.[43][44]
During the next seven years, Faraday
spent much of his time perfecting his
recipe for optical quality (heavy)
glass, borosilicate of lead,[45] which he
used in his future studies connecting
light with magnetism.[46] In his spare
time, Faraday continued publishing
his experimental work on optics and
electromagnetism; he conducted
correspondence with scientists whom
he had met on his journeys across
Europe with Davy, and who were also
working on electromagnetism.[47] Two
years after the death of Davy, in 1831,
he began his great series of
experiments in which he discovered
electromagnetic induction, recording
in his laboratory diary on 28 October
1831 he was; "making many
experiments with the great magnet of
the Royal Society".[48]

A diagram of Faraday's iron ring-coil apparatus

Built in 1831, the Faraday disk was the first

electric generator. The horseshoe-shaped
magnet (A) created a magnetic field through the
disk (D). When the disk was turned, this induced
an electric current radially outward from the
center toward the rim. The current flowed out
through the sliding spring contact m, through
the external circuit, and back into the center of
the disk through the axle.

Faraday's breakthrough came when

he wrapped two insulated coils of
wire around an iron ring, and found
that upon passing a current through
one coil a momentary current was
induced in the other coil.[2] This
phenomenon is now known as mutual
induction.[49] The iron ring-coil
apparatus is still on display at the
Royal Institution. In subsequent
experiments, he found that if he
moved a magnet through a loop of
wire an electric current flowed in that
wire. The current also flowed if the
loop was moved over a stationary
magnet. His demonstrations
established that a changing magnetic
field produces an electric field; this
relation was modelled mathematically
by James Clerk Maxwell as Faraday's
law, which subsequently became one
of the four Maxwell equations, and
which have in turn evolved into the
generalization known today as field
theory.[50] Faraday would later use the
principles he had discovered to
construct the electric dynamo, the
ancestor of modern power generators
and the electric motor.[51]
 

Faraday (right) and John Daniell (left), founders

of electrochemistry.

In 1832, he completed a series of

experiments aimed at investigating
the fundamental nature of electricity;
Faraday used "static", batteries, and
"animal electricity" to produce the
phenomena of electrostatic attraction,
electrolysis, magnetism, etc. He
concluded that, contrary to the
scientific opinion of the time, the
divisions between the various "kinds"
of electricity were illusory. Faraday
instead proposed that only a single
"electricity" exists, and the changing
values of quantity and intensity
(current and voltage) would produce
different groups of phenomena.[2]

Near the end of his career, Faraday

proposed that electromagnetic forces
extended into the empty space
around the conductor.[50] This idea
was rejected by his fellow scientists,
and Faraday did not live to see the
eventual acceptance of his
proposition by the scientific
community. Faraday's concept of
lines of flux emanating from charged
bodies and magnets provided a way
to visualize electric and magnetic
fields; that conceptual model was
crucial for the successful
development of the
electromechanical devices that
dominated engineering and industry
for the remainder of the 19th century.

Diamagnetism
 

Faraday holding a type of glass bar he used in

1845 to show magnetism affects light in
dielectric material.[52]

In 1845, Faraday discovered that

many materials exhibit a weak
repulsion from a magnetic field: a
phenomenon he termed
diamagnetism.[53]

Faraday also discovered that the

plane of polarization of linearly
polarized light can be rotated by the
application of an external magnetic
field aligned with the direction in
which the light is moving. This is now
termed the Faraday effect.[50] In Sept
1845 he wrote in his notebook, "I have
at last succeeded in illuminating a
magnetic curve or line of force and in
magnetising a ray of light".[54]

Later on in his life, in 1862, Faraday

used a spectroscope to search for a
different alteration of light, the change
of spectral lines by an applied
magnetic field. The equipment
available to him was, however,
insufficient for a definite
determination of spectral change.
Pieter Zeeman later used an improved
apparatus to study the same
phenomenon, publishing his results in
1897 and receiving the 1902 Nobel
Prize in Physics for his success. In
both his 1897 paper[55] and his Nobel
acceptance speech,[56] Zeeman made
reference to Faraday's work.

Faraday cage

In his work on static electricity,

Faraday's ice pail experiment
demonstrated that the charge resided
only on the exterior of a charged
conductor, and exterior charge had no
influence on anything enclosed within
a conductor. This is because the
exterior charges redistribute such that
the interior fields emanating from
them cancel one another. This
shielding effect is used in what is now
known as a Faraday cage.[50]

Royal Institution and

public service
 

Michael Faraday meets Father Thames, from

Punch (21 July 1855)

Faraday had a long association with

the Royal Institution of Great Britain.
He was appointed Assistant
Superintendent of the House of the
Royal Institution in 1821.[57] He was
elected a member of the Royal
Society in 1824.[7] In 1825, he became
Director of the Laboratory of the Royal
Institution.[57] Six years later, in 1833,
Faraday became the first Fullerian
Professor of Chemistry at the Royal
Institution of Great Britain, a position
to which he was appointed for life
without the obligation to deliver
lectures. His sponsor and mentor was
John 'Mad Jack' Fuller, who created
the position at the Royal Institution for
Faraday.[58]

Beyond his scientific research into

areas such as chemistry, electricity,
and magnetism at the Royal
Institution, Faraday undertook
numerous, and often time-consuming,
service projects for private enterprise
and the British government. This work
included investigations of explosions
in coal mines, being an expert witness
in court, and along with two engineers
from Chance Brothers c.1853, the
preparation of high-quality optical
glass, which was required by Chance
for its lighthouses. In 1846, together
with Charles Lyell, he produced a
lengthy and detailed report on a
serious explosion in the colliery at
Haswell, County Durham, which killed
95 miners. Their report was a
meticulous forensic investigation and
indicated that coal dust contributed to
the severity of the explosion. The
report should have warned coal
owners of the hazard of coal dust
explosions, but the risk was ignored
for over 60 years until the
Senghenydd Colliery Disaster of 1913.

Lighthouse lantern room from mid-1800s

As a respected scientist in a nation
with strong maritime interests,
Faraday spent extensive amounts of
time on projects such as the
construction and operation of
lighthouses and protecting the
bottoms of ships from corrosion. His
workshop still stands at Trinity Buoy
Wharf above the Chain and Buoy
Store, next to London's only
lighthouse where he carried out the
first experiments in electric lighting
for lighthouses.[59]

Faraday was also active in what

would now be called environmental
science, or engineering. He
investigated industrial pollution at
Swansea and was consulted on air
pollution at the Royal Mint. In July
1855, Faraday wrote a letter to The
Times on the subject of the foul
condition of the River Thames, which
resulted in an often-reprinted cartoon
in Punch. (See also The Great
Stink).[60]

Faraday's apparatus for experimental

demonstration of ideomotor effect on table-
demonstration of ideomotor effect on table-
turning

Faraday assisted with the planning

and judging of exhibits for the Great
Exhibition of 1851 in London. He also
advised the National Gallery on the
cleaning and protection of its art
collection, and served on the National
Gallery Site Commission in
1857.[61][62]

Education was another of Faraday's

areas of service; he lectured on the
topic in 1854 at the Royal
Institution,[63] and in 1862 he
appeared before a Public Schools
Commission to give his views on
education in Great Britain. Faraday
also weighed in negatively on the
public's fascination with table-
turning,[64][65] mesmerism, and
seances, and in so doing chastised
both the public and the nation's
educational system.[66]

Michael Faraday delivering a Christmas Lecture

at the Royal Institution in 1856.
Before his famous Christmas lectures,
Faraday delivered chemistry lectures
for the City Philosophical Society
from 1816 to 1818 in order to refine
the quality of his lectures.[67] Between
1827 and 1860 at the Royal Institution
in London, Faraday gave a series of
nineteen Christmas lectures for young
people, a series which continues
today. The objective of Faraday's
Christmas lectures was to present
science to the general public in the
hopes of inspiring them and
generating revenue for the Royal
Institution. They were notable events
on the social calendar among
London's gentry. Over the course of
several letters to his close friend
Benjamin Abbott, Faraday outlined his
recommendations on the art of
lecturing: Faraday wrote "a flame
should be lighted at the
commencement and kept alive with
unremitting splendour to the end".[68]
His lectures were joyful and juvenile,
he delighted in filling soap bubbles
with various gasses (in order to
determine whether or not they are
magnetic) in front of his audiences
and marveled at the rich colors of
polarized lights, but the lectures were
also deeply philosophical. In his
lectures he urged his audiences to
consider the mechanics of his
experiments: "you know very well that
ice floats upon water ... Why does the
ice float? Think of that, and
philosophise".[69] His subjects
consisted of Chemistry and Electricity,
and included: 1841 The Rudiments of
Chemistry, 1843 First Principles of
Electricity, 1848 The Chemical History
of a Candle, 1851 Attractive Forces,
1853 Voltaic Electricity, 1854 The
Chemistry of Combustion, 1855 The
Distinctive Properties of the Common
Metals, 1857 Static Electricity, 1858
The Metallic Properties, 1859 The
Various Forces of Matter and their
Relations to Each Other.[70]

Commemorations

Michael Faraday statue in Savoy Place, London.

Sculptor John Henry Foley RA.

A statue of Faraday stands in Savoy

Place, London, outside the Institution
of Engineering and Technology. Also
in London, the Michael Faraday
Memorial, designed by brutalist
architect Rodney Gordon and
completed in 1961, is at the Elephant
& Castle gyratory system, near
Faraday's birthplace at Newington
Butts. Faraday School is located on
Trinity Buoy Wharf where his
workshop still stands above the Chain
and Buoy Store, next to London's only
lighthouse.[71]

Faraday Gardens is a small park in

Walworth, London, not far from his
birthplace at Newington Butts. This
park lies within the local council ward
of Faraday in the London Borough of
Southwark. Michael Faraday Primary
school is situated on the Aylesbury
Estate in Walworth.[72]

A building at London South Bank

University, which houses the
institute's electrical engineering
departments is named the Faraday
Wing, due to its proximity to Faraday's
birthplace in Newington Butts. A hall
at Loughborough University was
named after Faraday in 1960. Near
the entrance to its dining hall is a
bronze casting, which depicts the
symbol of an electrical transformer,
and inside there hangs a portrait, both
in Faraday's honour. An eight-story
building at the University of
Edinburgh's science & engineering
campus is named for Faraday, as is a
recently built hall of accommodation
at Brunel University, the main
engineering building at Swansea
University, and the instructional and
experimental physics building at
Northern Illinois University. The
former UK Faraday Station in
Antarctica was named after him.[73]

Streets named for

"Without
such Faraday can be found
freedom in many British cities
there would
(e.g., London, Fife,
have been
Swindon, Basingstoke,
no
Nottingham, Whitby,
Shakespear
e, no Kirkby, Crawley,
Goethe, no Newbury, Swansea,
Newton, no Aylesbury and
Faraday, no Stevenage) as well as
Pasteur and in France (Paris),
no Lister."
Germany (Berlin-
—Albert Dahlem, Hermsdorf),
Einstein's
Canada (Quebec; Deep
speech on
River, Ontario; Ottawa,
intellectual
freedom at
Ontario), and the
the Royal United States (Reston,
Albert Hall, Virginia).
London
after having A Royal Society of Arts
fled Nazi blue plaque, unveiled
Germany, 3 in 1876,
October
commemorates
1933.[74]
Faraday at 48
Blandford Street in
London's Marylebone district.[75] From
1991 until 2001, Faraday's picture
featured on the reverse of Series E
£20 banknotes issued by the Bank of
England. He was portrayed
conducting a lecture at the Royal
Institution with the magneto-electric
spark apparatus.[76] In 2002, Faraday
was ranked number 22 in the BBC's
list of the 100 Greatest Britons
following a UK-wide vote.[77]

The Faraday Institute for Science and

Religion derives its name from the
scientist, who saw his faith as integral
to his scientific research. The logo of
the Institute is also based on
Faraday's discoveries. It was created
in 2006 by a $2,000,000 grant from
the John Templeton Foundation to
carry out academic research, to foster
understanding of the interaction
between science and religion, and to
engage public understanding in both
these subject areas.[78][79]

Faraday's life and contributions to

electromagnetics was the principal
topic of the tenth episode, titled "The
Electric Boy", of the 2014 American
science documentary series, Cosmos:
A Spacetime Odyssey, which was
broadcast on Fox and the National
Geographic Channel.[80]

Faraday Prizes & Medals

In honor and remembrance of his
great scientific contributions, several
institutions have created prizes and
awards in his name. This include:
 The IET Faraday Medal
The Royal Society of London
Michael Faraday Prize[81]
The Institute of Physics Michael
Faraday Medal and Prize[82]
The Royal Society of Chemistry
Faraday Lectureship Prize[83]

Gallery
  

Michael Faraday in his laboratory, ca.

1850s.

Michael Faraday's study at the Royal

Institution.
  

Michael Faraday's flat at the Royal

Institution.

Artist Harriet Jane Moore who

documented Faraday's life in
watercolours.
Bibliography

Chemische Manipulation, 1828

Faraday's books, with the exception of

Chemical Manipulation, were
collections of scientific papers or
transcriptions of lectures.[84] Since his
death, Faraday's diary has been
published, as have several large
volumes of his letters and Faraday's
journal from his travels with Davy in
1813–1815.

Faraday, Michael (1827). Chemical

Manipulation, Being Instructions to
Students in Chemistry. John Murray.
2nd ed. 1830 , 3rd ed. 1842
Faraday, Michael (1839).
Experimental Researches in
Electricity, vols. i. and ii . Richard
and John Edward Taylor.; vol. iii.
Richard Taylor and William Francis,
1855
Faraday, Michael (1859).
Experimental Researches in
Chemistry and Physics . Taylor and
Francis. ISBN 978-0-85066-841-4.
Faraday, Michael (1861). W.
Crookes, ed. A Course of Six
Lectures on the Chemical History of
a Candle . Griffin, Bohn & Co.
ISBN 978-1-4255-1974-2.
Faraday, Michael (1873). W.
Crookes, ed. On the Various Forces
in Nature . Chatto and Windus.
Faraday, Michael (1932–1936). T.
Martin, ed. Diary. ISBN 978-0-7135-
0439-2. – published in eight
volumes; see also the 2009
publication of Faraday's diary
Faraday, Michael (1991). B. Bowers
and L. Symons, ed. Curiosity
Perfectly Satisfyed: Faraday's
Travels in Europe 1813–1815.
Institution of Electrical Engineers.
Faraday, Michael (1991). F. A. J. L.
James, ed. The Correspondence of
Michael Faraday. 1. INSPEC, Inc.
ISBN 978-0-86341-248-6. – volume
2, 1993; volume 3, 1996; volume 4,
1999
Faraday, Michael (2008). Alice
Jenkins, ed. Michael Faraday's
Mental Exercises: An Artisan Essay
Circle in Regency London. Liverpool,
UK: Liverpool University Press.
Course of six lectures on the
various forces of matter, and their
relations to each other London;
Glasgow: R. Griffin, 1860.
The Liquefaction of Gases,
Edinburgh: W. F. Clay, 1896.
The letters of Faraday and
Schoenbein 1836–1862. With
notes, comments and references to
contemporary letters London:
Williams & Norgate 1899. (Digital
edition by the University and State
Library Düsseldorf)
See also
Faraday cage
Faraday paradox
Faraday rotator
Faraday (Unit of electrical charge)
Farad (Unit of electrical
capacitance)
Forensic engineering
Hans Christian Ørsted
Homopolar generator
Lines of force
Table-turning
Timeline of hydrogen technologies
 Timeline of low-temperature
technology
Zeeman effect

References
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"Faraday, Michael". Encyclopædia
Britannica. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge
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1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.
2. "Archives Michael Faraday
biography – The IET" . theiet.org.
3. The Scientific Papers of James
Clerk Maxwell Volume 1 page 360;
Courier Dover 2003, ISBN 0-486-
49560-4
4. Gleeson-White, Jane (10 November
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6. Gene Currivan (16 Jun 1963). "I.Q.
Tests Called Harmful to Pupil", New
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"Faraday, Michael (1791–1867)".
Oxford Dictionary of National
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University Press.
doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9153 .
(Subscription or UK public library
membership required.)

8. For a concise account of Faraday's

life including his childhood, see pages
175–83 of EVERY SATURDAY: A
JOURNAL OF CHOICE READING, Vol III
published at Cambridge in 1873 by
Osgood & Co.
9. The implication is that James
discovered job opportunities
elsewhere through membership of this
sect. James joined the London
meeting house on 20 February 1791,
and moved his family shortly
thereafter. See Cantor, pp. 57–8.
10. "Michael Faraday." History of
Science and Technology. Houghton
Mifflin Company, 2004. Answers.com
4 June 2007
11. Plaque #19 on Open Plaques .
12. Jenkins, Alice (2008). Michael
Faraday's Mental Exercises: An Artisan
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13. Lienhard, John H. (1992). "Michael
Faraday". The Engines of Our
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KUHF-FM Houston. |access-date=
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14. Lienhard, John H. (1992). "Jane
Marcet's Books". The Engines of Our
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Marcet's Books (transcript) . NPR.
KUHF-FM Houston. |access-date=
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15. Thomas, p. 17
16. The register at St. Faith-in-the-
Virgin near St. Paul's Cathedral,
records 12 June as the date their
licence was issued. The witness was
Sarah's father, Edward. Their marriage
was 16 years prior to the Marriage and
Registration Act of 1837. See Cantor,
p. 59.
17. Cantor, pp. 41–43, 60–4, and 277-
80.
18. Paul's Alley was located 10 houses
south of the Barbican. See page 330
Elmes's (1831) Topographical
Dictionary of the British Metropolis.
19. Baggott, Jim (2 September 1991).
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Faraday was not just one of Britain's
greatest experimenters. A closer look
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20. West, Krista (2013). The Basics of
Metals and Metalloids. Rosen
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12-2. p. 30.
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28. Croddy, Eric; Wirtz, James J.
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Journal of Chemical Education. 82 (4):
518. Bibcode:2005JChEd..82..518J .
doi:10.1021/ed082p518 .
31. Faraday (1827), p. 127.
32. Faraday, Michael (1821). "On two
new Compounds of Chlorine and
Carbon, and on a new Compound of
Iodine, Carbon, and Hydrogen".
Philosophical Transactions. 111: 47–
74. doi:10.1098/rstl.1821.0007 .
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Experimental Researches in Chemistry
and Physics. London: Richard Taylor
and William Francis. pp. 33–53.
ISBN 978-0-85066-841-4.
34. Williams, L. Pearce (1965). Michael
Faraday: A Biography. New York: Basic
Books. pp. 122–123. ISBN 978-0-306-
80299-7.
35. Faraday, Michael (1823). "On
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Journal of Science. 15: 71.
36. Faraday, Michael (1859).
Experimental Researches in Chemistry
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and William Francis. pp. 81–84.
ISBN 978-0-85066-841-4.
37. Ehl, Rosemary Gene; Ihde, Aaron
(1954). "Faraday's Electrochemical
Laws and the Determination of
Equivalent Weights". Journal of
Chemical Education. 31 (May):
226&ndash, 232.
Bibcode:1954JChEd..31..226E .
doi:10.1021/ed031p226 .
38. "The Birth of Nanotechnology" .
Nanogallery.info. 2006. Retrieved
25 July 2007. "Faraday made some
attempt to explain what was causing
the vivid coloration in his gold
mixtures, saying that known
phenomena seemed to indicate that a
mere variation in the size of gold
particles gave rise to a variety of
resultant colors."
39. Faraday, Michael (1844).
Experimental Researches in Electricity.
2. ISBN 978-0-486-43505-3. See plate
4.
40. Hamilton, pp. 165–71, 183, 187–
90.
41. Cantor, pp. 231–3.
42. Thompson, p. 95.
43. Thompson, p. 91. This lab entry
illustrates Faraday's quest for the
connection between light and
electromagnetic phenomenon 10
September 1821.
44. Cantor, p. 233.
45. Thompson, pp. 95–98.
46. Thompson, p. 100.
47. Faraday's initial induction lab work
occurred in late November 1825. His
work was heavily influenced by the
ongoing research of fellow European
scientists Ampere, Arago, and Oersted
as indicated by his diary entries.
Cantor, pp. 235–44.
48. Gooding, David; Pinch, Trevor;
Schaffer, Simon (1989). The Uses of
Experiment: Studies in the Natural
Sciences. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 0-521-33768-2. p. 212.
49. Van Valkenburgh (1995). Basic
Electricity. Cengage Learning. ISBN 0-
7906-1041-8. p. 4–91.
50. Lives and Times of Great Pioneers
in Chemistry (lavoisier to Sanger).
World Scientific. 2015. pp. 85, 86.
51. "Michael Faraday's generator" .
The Royal Institution. 15 October 2017.
52. "Detail of an engraving by Henry
Adlard, based on earlier photograph by
Maull & Polyblank ca. 1857" . National
Portrait Gallery, UK: NPR.
53. James, Frank A.J.L (2010).
Michael Faraday: A Very Short
Introduction. Oxford University Press.
ISBN 0-19-161446-7. p. 81.
54. Day, Peter (1999). The
Philosopher's Tree: A Selection of
Michael Faraday's Writings. CRC
Press. ISBN 0-7503-0570-3. p. 125.
55. Zeeman, Pieter (1897). "The Effect
of Magnetisation on the Nature of
Light Emitted by a Substance". Nature.
55 (1424): 347.
Bibcode:1897Natur..55..347Z .
doi:10.1038/055347a0 .
56. "Pieter Zeeman, Nobel Lecture" .
Retrieved 29 May 2008.
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The Royal Institution. Retrieved
20 February 2014.
58. Jones, Roger (2009). What's Who?:
A Dictionary of Things Named After
People and the People They are
Named After. Troubador Publishing
Ltd. p. 74.
59. Smith, Denis (2001). London and
the Thames Valley. Thomas Telford.
ISBN 0-7277-2876-8. p. 236.
60. Faraday, Michael (9 July 1855).
"The State of the Thames". The Times.
p. 8.
61. "No. 21950" . The London Gazette.
16 December 1856. p. 4219.
62. Thomas, p. 83
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Science and education; lectures
delivered at the Royal institution of
Great Britain . The Library of Congress.
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64. See The Illustrated London News, 2
July 1853, p.530 for Faraday's
comments.
65. Thompson, Silvanus Phillips
(1898). Michael Faraday; his life and
work . Cornell University Library.
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66. James, Frank A. J. L; Faraday,
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69. Seeger, R. J. (1968). "Michael
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Sources
Cantor, Geoffrey (1991). Michael
Faraday, Sandemanian and
Scientist. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-
333-58802-4.
Hamilton, James (2004). A Life of
Discovery: Michael Faraday, Giant of
the Scientific Revolution. New York:
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6016-0.
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Further reading
Biographies

Agassi, Joseph (1971). Faraday as

a Natural Philosopher. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Ames, Joseph Sweetman (Ed.) (c.
1900). The Discovery of Induced
Electric Currents. 2. New York:
American Book Company (1890).
Bence Jones, Henry (1870). The
Life and Letters of Faraday .
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott and
Company.
The British Electrical and Allied
Manufacturers Association (1931).
Faraday. Edinburgh: R. & R. Clark,
Ltd.
Gladstone, J. H. (1872). Michael
Faraday . London: Macmillan.
Gooding, David; James, Frank A. J.
L. (1985). Faraday rediscovered:
essays on the life and work of
Michael Faraday, 1791–1867.
Basingstoke, Hants, England; New
York: Macmillan Press; Stockton
Press. ISBN 978-0-333-39320-8.
Gooding, David; Cantor, Geoffrey;
James, Frank A. J. L. (1996).
Michael Faraday. Amherst, New
York: Humanity Books. ISBN 978-1-
57392-556-3.
Gooding, David; Tweney, Ryan D.
(1991). Michael Faraday's 'Chemical
notes, hints, suggestions, and
objects of pursuit' of 1822. London:
P. Peregrinus in association with
the Institution of Engineering and
Technology. ISBN 978-0-86341-255-
4.
Hamilton, James (2002). Faraday:
The Life. London: Harper Collins.
ISBN 978-0-00-716376-2.
Hirshfeld, Alan W. (2006). The
Electric Life of Michael Faraday.
Walker and Company. ISBN 978-0-
8027-1470-1.
Russell, Colin A. (Ed. Owen
Gingerich) (2000). Michael Faraday:
Physics and Faith (Oxford Portraits
in Science Series). New York:
Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-
0-19-511763-9.
Thomas, John Meurig (1991).
Michael Faraday and the Royal
Institution: The Genius of Man and
 Place. Bristol: Hilger. ISBN 978-0-
7503-0145-9.
Tyndall, John (1868). Faraday as a
Discoverer . London: Longmans,
Green, and Company.
Williams, L. Pearce (1965). Michael
Faraday: A Biography. New York:
Basic Books.

External links
Biographies

Biography at The Royal Institution

of Great Britain
Faraday as a Discoverer by John
Tyndall, Project Gutenberg
 (downloads)
The Christian Character of Michael
Faraday
Michael Faraday on the British
twenty-pound banknote
The Life and Discoveries of Michael
Faraday by J. A. Crowther, London:
Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge, 1920

Others

Michael Faraday's announcement

of ether as an anaesthetic in 1818
Michael Faraday at Curlie
Works by Michael Faraday at
Project Gutenberg
Works by or about Michael
Faraday at Internet Archive
Works by Michael Faraday at
LibriVox (public domain
audiobooks)  
Video Podcast with Sir John
Cadogan talking about Benzene
since Faraday
The letters of Faraday and
Schoenbein 1836–1862. With
notes, comments and references to
contemporary letters (1899) full
download PDF
A Short History of Trinity Buoy
 Wharf at the Trinity Buoy Wharf
website
Faraday School, located on Trinity
Buoy Wharf at the New Model
School Company Limited's website
Michael Faraday: The Invention of
the Electric Motor and Electric
Generator
"Profiles in Chemistry: Michael
Faraday" on YouTube, Chemical
Heritage Foundation

Wikisource has original works written

by or about:
Michael Faraday
Wikimedia Commons has media
related to Michael Faraday.

Wikiquote has quotations related to:

Michael Faraday

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