Michael Faraday

Born: 22 Sept 1791 in Newington Butts, Surrey (now London !ngland "ied: 2# $ug 1%&7 in 'a(pton )ourt, Middlese*, !ngland

Michael Faraday did not directly contribute to mathematics so should not really qualify to have his biography in this archive. However he was such a major figure and his science had such a large impact on the work of those developing mathematical theories that it is proper that he is included. We say more about this below. Faraday's father, ames Faraday, was a blacksmith who came from !orkshire in the north of "ngland while his mother #argaret Hastwell, also from the north of "ngland, was the daughter of a farmer. "arly in $%&$ ames and #argaret moved to 'ewington (utts, which was then a village outside )ondon, where ames hoped that work was more plentiful. *hey already had two children, a boy +obert and a girl, before they moved to 'ewington (utts and #ichael was born only a few months after their move. Work was not easy to find and the family moved again, remaining in or around )ondon. (y $%&,, when #ichael was around five years, the family were living in acob's Wells #ews in )ondon. *hey had rooms over a coachhouse and, by this time, a second daughter had been born. *imes were hard particularly since #ichael's father had poor health and was not able to provide much for his family. *he family were held closely together by a strong

religious faith, being members of the -andemanians, a form of the .rotestant /hurch which had split from the /hurch of -cotland. *he -andemanians believed in the literal truth of the (ible and tried to recreate the sense of love and community which had characterised the early /hristian /hurch. *he religious influence was important for Faraday since the theories he developed later in his life were strongly influenced by a belief in a unity of the world. #ichael attended a day school where he learnt to read, write and count. When Faraday was thirteen years old he had to find work to help the family finances and he was employed running errands for 0eorge +iebau who had a bookselling business. 1n $23,, after a year as an errand4 boy, Faraday was taken on by +iebau as an apprentice bookbinder. He spent seven years serving his apprenticeship with +iebau. 'ot only did he bind books but he also read them. +iebau wrote a letter in $2$5 in which he described how Faraday spent his days as an apprentice 6see for e7ample 89:;<4 After the regular hours of business, he was chiefly employed in drawing and copying from the Artist's Repository, a work published in numbers which he took in weekly. ... Dr Watts's Improvements of the mind was then read and fre uently took in his pocket, when he went an early walk in the morning, visiting some other works of art or searching for some mineral or vegetable curiosity. ... !is mind ever engaged, besides attending to bookbinding which he e"ecuted in a proper manner. !is mode of living temperate, seldom drinking any other than pure water, and when done his day's work, would set himself down in the workshop ... If I had any curious

book from my customers to bind, with plates, he would copy such as he thought singular or clever ... Faraday himself wrote of this time in his life<4 Whilst an apprentice, I loved to read the scientific books which were under my hands ... From $2$3 Faraday attended lectures at ohn *atum's house. He attended lectures on many different topics but he was particularly interested in those on electricity, galvanism and mechanics. =t *atum's house he made two special friends, Hu7table who was a medical student, and (enjamin =bbott who was a clerk. 1n $2$> Faraday attended lectures by Humphry ?avy at the +oyal 1nstitution and made careful copies of the notes he had taken. 1n fact these lectures would become Faraday's passport to a scientific career. 1n $2$>, intent on improving his literary skills, he carried out a correspondence with =bbott. He had already tried to leave bookbinding and the route he tried was certainly an ambitious one. He had written to -ir oseph (anks, the .resident of the +oyal -ociety, asking how he could become involved in scientific work. .erhaps not surprisingly he had received no reply. When his apprenticeship ended in @ctober $2$>, Faraday got a job as a bookbinder but still he attempted to get into science and again he took a somewhat ambitious route for a young man with little formal education. He wrote to Humphry ?avy, who had been his hero since he attended his chemistry lectures, sending him copies of the notes he had taken at ?avy's lectures. ?avy, unlike (anks, replied to Faraday and arranged a meeting. He advised Faraday to keep working as a bookbinder, saying<4

#cience 8is: a harsh mistress, and in a pecuniary point of view but poorly rewarding those who devote themselves to her service. -hortly after the interview ?avy's assistant had to be sacked for fighting and ?avy sent for Faraday and invited him to fill the empty post. 1n $2$5 Faraday took up the position at the +oyal 1nstitution. 1n @ctober $2$5 ?avy set out on a scientific tour of "urope and he took Faraday with him as his assistant and secretary. Faraday met =mpAre and other scientists in .aris. *hey travelled on towards 1taly where they spent time in 0enoa, Florence, +ome and 'aples. Heading north again they visited #ilan where Faraday met Bolta. *he trip was an important one for Faraday 89:<4 $hese eighteen months abroad had taken the place, in %araday's life, of the years spent at university by other men. !e gained a working knowledge of %rench and Italian& he had added considerably to his scientific attainments, and had met and talked with many of the leading foreign men of science& but, above all, the tour had been what was most valuable to him at that time, a broadening influence. @n his return to )ondon, Faraday was re4engaged at the +oyal 1nstitution as an assistant. His work there was mainly involved with chemical e7periments in the laboratory. He also began lecturing on chemistry topics at the .hilosophical -ociety. He published his first paper in $2$C on caustic lime from *uscany. 1n $2>$ Faraday married -arah (arnard whom he had met when attending the -andemanian church. Faraday was made -uperintendent of the House and )aboratory at

the +oyal 1nstitution and given additional rooms to make his marriage possible. *he year $2>$ marked another important time in Faraday's researches. He had worked almost entirely on chemistry topics yet one of his interests from his days as a bookbinder had been electricity. 1n $2>3 several scientists in .aris including =rago and =mpAre made significant advances in establishing a relation between electricity and magnetism. ?avy became interested and this gave Faraday the opportunity to work on the topic. He published 'n some new electro(magnetical motions, and on the theory of magnetism in the )uarterly *ournal of #cience in @ctober $2>$. .earce Williams writes 8$:<4 It records the first conversion of electrical into mechanical energy. It also contained the first notion of the line of force. 1t is Faraday's work on electricity which has prompted us to add him to this archive. However we must note that Faraday was in no sense a mathematician and almost all his biographers describe him as Dmathematically illiterateD. He never learnt any mathematics and his contributions to electricity were purely that of an e7perimentalist. Why then include him in an archive of mathematiciansE Well it was Faraday's work which led to deep mathematical theories of electricity and magnetism. 1n particular the remarkable mathematical theories on the topic developed by #a7well would not have been possible without Faraday's discovery of various laws. *his is a point which #a7well himself stressed on a number of occasions. 1n the ten years from $2>$ to $25$ Faraday again

undertook research on chemistry. His two most important pieces of work on chemistry during that period was liquefying chlorine in $2>5 and isolating benFene in $2>,. (etween these dates, in $2>9, he was elected a fellow of the +oyal -ociety. *his was a difficult time for Faraday since ?avy was at this time .resident of the +oyal -ociety and could not see the man who he still thought of as his assistant as becoming a Fellow. =lthough ?avy opposed his election, he was over4ruled by the other Fellows. Faraday never held the incident against ?avy, always holding him in the highest regard. Faraday introduced a series of si7 /hristmas lectures for children at the +oyal 1nstitution in $2>C. 1n $25$ Faraday returned to his work on electricity and made what is arguably his most important discovery, namely that of electro4magnetic induction. *his discovery was the opposite of that which he had made ten years earlier. He showed that a magnet could induce an electrical current in a wire. *hus he was able to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy and discover the first dynamo. =gain he made lines of force central to his thinking. He published his first paper in what was to become a series on +"perimental researches on electricity in $25$. He read the paper before the +oyal -ociety on >9 'ovember of that year. 1n $25> Faraday began to receive honours for his major contributions to science. 1n that year he received an honorary degree from the Gniversity of @7ford. 1n February $255 he became Fullerian .rofessor of /hemistry at the +oyal 1nstitution. Further honours such as the +oyal #edal and the /opley #edal, both from the +oyal -ociety, were to follow. 1n $25C he was made a #ember of the -enate of the Gniversity of )ondon, which

was a /rown appointment. ?uring this period, beginning in $255, Faraday made important discoveries in electrochemistry. He went on to work on electrostatics and by $252 he 8$:<4 ... was in a position to put all the pieces together into a coherent theory of electricity. *he e7tremely high workload eventually told on Faraday's health and in $25& he suffered a nervous breakdown. He did recover his health and by $29, he began intense research activity again. *he work which he undertook at this time was the result of mathematical developments in the subject. Faraday's ideas on lines of force had received a mathematical treatment from William *homson. He wrote to Faraday on C =ugust $29, telling him of his mathematical predictions that a magnetic field should affect the plane of polarised light. Faraday had attempted to detect this e7perimentally many years earlier but without success. 'ow, with the idea reinforced by *homson, he tried again and on $5 -eptember $29, he was successful in showing that a strong magnetic field could rotate the plane of polarisation, and moreover that the angle of rotation was proportional to the strength of the magnetic field. Faraday wrote 6see for e7ample 8$:;<4 $hat which is magnetic in the forces of matter has been affected, and in turn has affected that which is truly magnetic in the force of light. He followed his line of e7periments which led him to discover diamagnetism. (y the mid $2,3s Faraday's mental abilities began to

decline. =t around the same time #a7well was building on the foundations Faraday had created developing a mathematical theory which would always have been out of reach for Faraday. However Faraday continued to lecture at the +oyal 1nstitution but declined the offer of the .residency of the +oyal -ociety in $2,%. He continued to give the children's /hristmas lectures. 1n $2,&4C3 he gave the /hristmas lectures on the various forces of matter. =t the following /hristmas he gave the children's lectures on the chemical history of the candle. *hese two final series of lectures by Faraday were published and have become classics. *he /hristmas lectures at the +oyal 1nstitution, begun by Faraday, continue today but now reach a much greater audience since they are televised. 1 8"F+: have watched these lectures with great interest over many years. *hey are a joy for anyone interested as 1 am in the Dpublic understanding of scienceD. 1 particularly remember lectures by /arl -agan on Dthe planetsD and mathematics lectures by /hris Heeman and 1an -tewart. *he +oyal 1nstitution literature states<4 8%araday's: magnetic laboratory, where many of his most important discoveries were made, was restored in $&%> to the form it was known to have had in $2,9. A museum, ad,acent to the laboratory, houses a uni ue collection of original apparatus arranged to illustrate the most important aspects of %araday's immense contribution to the advancement of science in his fifty years at the Royal Institution. #artin, in 89:, gives this indication of Faraday's character<4

!e was by any sense and by any standard a good man& and yet his goodness was not of the kind that make others uncomfortable in his presence. !is strong personal sense of duty did not take the gaiety out of his life. ... his virtues were those of action, not of mere abstention ... $rticle +y: * * ''-onnor and + % Robertson May 2,,1 Mac-utor 'istory o. Mathe(atics 8http<IIwww4history.mcs.st4 andrews.ac.ukI#athematiciansIFaraday.html: