Michael Faraday

Michael Faraday (b. Newington, Surrey, England, 22nd Sep. 1791, d. Hampton Court, Middlesex, England, 25th August 1867) was a physicist, a chemist, a physical chemist and a natural philosopher. The SI unit of capacitance was named after him as the Farad (F). He was born into a poor family, of which he was he third of four children. His father, James Faraday, was a blacksmith. James Faraday's poor health prevented him from providing more than bare necessities to his family. Michael later recalled that he was once given a loaf of bread to feed him for a week. His parents were members of the Sandemanian Church, and Michael was brought up within this discipline. His most favourite book was the Bible in which he had heavily underlined, Timothy 6:10, "The love of money is the root of all evil." Michael, at the age of 14, was apprenticed to Riebau, a bookseller and a bookbinder, in whose shop he read books on science that came to his hands.
In 1812, one of the customers at Riebau's shop, gave Faraday a ticket to attend the last four lectures of a course given by Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. He applied to Davy for employment, sending him as evidence of his interest the notes that he had made of his lectures. At the age of 21, he was appointed assistance to Davy to help with both lecture experiments and research. He accompanied Davy on a tour in Europe where he saw much of the active scientific research. In 1821, he married Sarah Barnard, a union that was happy though childless. Faraday became the discoverer of electromagnetic induction, of the laws of electrolysis, and of the fundamental relations between between light and magnetism. He was the originator of the conceptions that underlie the modern theory of the electromagnetic field. He also discovered two unknown chlorides of carbon and a new compound of carbon. His last discovery was the rotation of the plane of polarization of light in magnetic field. When Faraday was endeavouring to explain to the Prime Minister or to the Chancellor of the Exchequer an important discovery, a politician's alleged comment was, "But, after all, what use is it?" Whereupon Faraday replied, "Why sir, there is a probability that you will soon be able to tax it!" His mind deteriorated rapidly after the mid-1850s. In 1862, he resigned his position at the Royal Institution, retiring to a house provided for him by Queen Victoria at Hampton Court.