FARADAY, MICHAEL

born Sept. 22, 1791, Newington, Surrey, Eng. died Aug. 25, 1867, Hampton Court Faraday, oil painting by T. Phillips, 1842. In the National Portrait Gallery, London. English physicist and chemist whose many experiments contributed greatly to the understanding of electromagnetism. Faraday, who became one of the greatest scientists of the 19th century, began his career as a chemist. He wrote a manual of practical chemistry that reveals his mastery of the technical aspects of his art, discovered a number of new organic compounds, among them benzene, and was the first to liquefy a permanent gas (i.e., one that was believed to be incapable of liquefaction). His major contribution, however, was in the field of electricity and magnetism. He was the first to produce an electric current from a magnetic field, invented the first electric motor and dynamo, demonstrated the relation between electricity and chemical bonding, discovered the effect of magnetism on light, and discovered and named diamagnetism, the peculiar behaviour of certain substances in strong magnetic fields. He provided the experimental, and a good deal of the theoretical, foundation upon which James Clerk Maxwell erected classical electromagnetic field theory. born Sept. 22, 1791, Newington, Surrey, Eng. died Aug. 25, 1867, Hampton Court, Surrey English physicist and chemist, whose many experiments contributed greatly to the understanding of electromagnetism. Faraday was early trained as a bookseller and bookbinder. He was appointed at 21 an assistant to Sir Humphry Davy, the noted English chemist, and accompanied Davy on a continental European tour in 181315. In 1821 Faraday discovered the principle of the electric motor and built a primitive model of one. Two years later he was the first to liquefy chlorine, and in 1825 he was able to isolate benzene. Convinced of the interrelation of electricity and magnetism, he discovered the phenomenon of electromagnetic inductionthe production of electric current by a change in magnetic intensity. In 1833 he was appointed professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution. Among his other accomplishments, Faraday produced the first dynamo, stated the basic laws of electrolysis, discovered that a magnetic field will rotate the plane of polarization (vibration) of light, and studied dielectrics (nonconducting materials). Faraday married Sarah Barnard in 1821. From about 1855, Faraday's mind began to fail. He retired some years before his death to live near Hampton Court in Surrey, in a house that Queen Victoria provided for his use. He declined the honour of a knighthood. His published works include Chemical Manipulation (1827), Experimental Researches in Electricity (183955), Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics (1859), A Course of Six Lectures on the Chemical History of a Candle (1861), and, posthumously, On the Various Forces in Nature (1873). Additional reading Faraday's ideas can be found in his Experimental Researches in Electricity, 3 vol. (183955, reissued 3 vol. in 2, 1965), and Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics (1859, reissued 1991). Ryan D. Tweney and David Gooding (eds.), Michael Faraday's Chemical Notes, Hints, Suggestions, and Objects of Pursuit of 1822 (1991), transcribes Faraday's chemical notebook. Frank A.J.L. James (ed.), The Correspondence of Michael Faraday (1991 ), contains Faraday's extant correspondence, but the translations of French and Italian letters to Faraday are not trustworthy; while L. Pearce Williams, Rosemary Fitzgerald, and Oliver Stallybrass (eds.), The Selected Correspondence of Michael Faraday, 2 vol. (1971), follows Faraday's discourses with colleagues on a host of subjects. Brian Bowers and Lenore Symons (eds.), Curiosity Perfectly Satisfyed: Faraday's Travels in Europe, 18131815 (1991), recounts Faraday's journey through Europe with his patron and scientific mentor, Sir Humphry Davy.An exhaustive modern account of Faraday's life and work is L. Pearce Williams, Michael Faraday (1965, reprinted 1987). Two earlier biographies still worth consulting are John Tyndall, Faraday as a Discoverer (1868, reissued 1961); and Silvanus P. Thompson, Michael Faraday: His Life and Work (1898). Joseph Agassi, Faraday as a Natural Philosopher (1971), described as a historical novel, is interesting but untrustworthy as an account of Faraday's life and thought. John Meurig Thomas, Michael Faraday and the Royal Institution (1991), combines biographical information with a selection of Faraday's writings. Faraday's ideas on field theory and their later development by Maxwell are treated in L. Pearce Williams, The Origins of Field Theory (1966, reissued 1980). Further developments are explored in William Berkson, Fields of Force: The Development of a World View from Faraday to Einstein (1974).David Gooding and Frank A.J.L. James (eds.), Faraday Rediscovered: Essays on the Life and Work of Michael Faraday, 17911867 (1985), collects several essays on Faraday the experimenter and discoverer. Geoffrey Cantor, Michael Faraday: Sandemanian and Scientist (1991), explores with exemplary scholarship Faraday's participation in the Sandemanian sect but should be read with caution since the effect of this religion on Faraday's science is greatly exaggerated. L. Pearce Williams