Michael Faraday (22 September 1791–25 August 1867) was an English scientist whose experimental investigations transformed electromagnetism and electrochemistry. Working principally at the Royal Institution in London, he discovered electromagnetic induction, established quantitative laws of electrolysis, isolated benzene, and demonstrated connections between magnetism and light. His work supplied experimental foundations for electric motors and generators and helped establish the field-based description of electromagnetic phenomena. (rigb.org)
Early life and scientific training
Faraday was born in Newington Butts, then in Surrey and now part of London. His father, James, was a blacksmith, and the family had limited financial resources. Faraday received an elementary schooling rather than a university education. In 1805 he began an apprenticeship with the bookbinder George Riebau, which continued until 1812. Reading the books he handled introduced him to scientific subjects, particularly chemistry and electricity. He supplemented this reading with lectures and practical investigations. (rigb.org)
In 1812 Faraday attended lectures by Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution and subsequently presented Davy with carefully prepared notes. Davy employed him as a laboratory assistant in 1813. Faraday accompanied Davy on a European tour during 1813–1815, encountering scientific laboratories and researchers before returning to institutional laboratory work. His training therefore combined extensive self-directed study with close involvement in experimental research. (rigb.org)
Faraday became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1824, director of the Royal Institution’s laboratory in 1825, and its first Fullerian Professor of Chemistry in 1833. These appointments provided the institutional setting for much of his subsequent research and public lecturing. (rigb.org)
Electromagnetic rotation and induction
In 1821 Faraday demonstrated continuous electromagnetic rotation: a current-carrying wire could move around a magnet. This apparatus established a principle underlying the electric motor, although it was an experimental demonstration rather than a practical industrial machine. It showed that electrical action could produce sustained mechanical motion. (aps.org)
His decisive discovery of electromagnetic induction followed in 1831. On 29 August he used an iron ring carrying two electrically separate coils. Connecting one coil to a battery produced a brief current in the other; interrupting the first current produced another transient response. A steady current in the first coil did not sustain a current in the second. These observations distinguished the effects of changing magnetic conditions from those of an unchanging magnetic field. (rigb.org)
Further experiments showed that moving a magnet relative to a coil could also induce current. Faraday subsequently constructed a rotating copper-disc generator, demonstrating conversion of mechanical energy into electrical energy. These investigations established operating principles of the electric generator and electrical transformer, without themselves providing the mature machines later developed for commercial use. (aps.org)
Chemical research and electrolysis
Faraday’s scientific career was not confined to physics. In 1823 he liquefied chlorine, contributing to experimental work on the condensation of gases. In 1825 he isolated benzene from an oily residue associated with the manufacture of compressed illuminating gas. He separated and analysed the substance, which he initially called “bicarburet of hydrogen.” Its later importance in organic chemistry should be distinguished from his original achievement of isolation and characterization. (mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk)
During the early 1830s he investigated electrolysis, establishing relationships between the quantity of electric charge passed through a system and the chemical transformation produced. His first law states that the mass of a particular substance transformed is proportional to the charge involved. His second law relates the masses of different substances transformed by equal charges to their chemical equivalent masses. These became known as Faraday’s laws of electrolysis. (goldbook.iupac.org)
Faraday also helped establish terminology including electrode, anode, cathode, and ion. This vocabulary made it possible to describe electrochemical processes more systematically and remains central to the subject. (rigb.org)
Magnetism, light, and fields
In 1845 Faraday demonstrated that a magnetic field could rotate the plane of polarization of light passing through suitable glass. Now called the Faraday effect, this magneto-optical phenomenon supplied experimental evidence connecting light with magnetism. The glass used in the investigation originated in his earlier work on optical materials. (rigb.org)
That year he also discovered diamagnetism, extending investigation of magnetic behaviour beyond strongly magnetic substances such as iron. His broader interpretation emphasized lines of force and physical processes in the space surrounding magnets and charged bodies. James Clerk Maxwell subsequently developed a mathematical electromagnetic theory drawing on these experimental and conceptual foundations. Faraday’s field ideas and Maxwell’s mathematical formulation were related contributions, not identical achievements. (rigb.org)
Public lectures and later life
Faraday helped establish the Royal Institution’s Friday Evening Discourses and Christmas Lectures in 1825. He delivered nineteen Christmas Lecture series, using demonstrations to explain scientific processes to young audiences. His lectures on the chemical history of a candle became especially well known and appeared in book form in 1861, edited by William Crookes. (rigb.org)
Alongside research, he advised the Admiralty and Trinity House, including work connected with lighthouses. In 1858 he received a residence at Hampton Court. He died there on 25 August 1867 and was buried in the Sandemanian section of Highgate Cemetery. His surviving apparatus, laboratory notebooks, and correspondence document both his experimental procedures and his extensive scientific relationships. (rigb.org)