Jacqueline Hochheiser, Corporate Communications
Michael Faraday is amongst the most well-known scientists of the 19th century, while coming from very humble beginnings. Despite the challenges, he began his career as a chemist and even wrote a manual on practical chemistry and discovered the compound Benzene. Faraday was also the first to produce electric current from a magnetic field and was the first to discover the effect of magnetism on light.
Early Life
Faraday was born on September 22, 1791 in Newington Butts, Surrey and was the third of four children. His family was not well off, with his father working as a blacksmith and often falling ill and incapable of working, lending to a lack of money, food, and education for the children. Because of the financial situation, Faraday only had a basic education and never went on to university. His family was part of a small Christian sect called the Sandemanians and it was during his Sunday school teachings that he learned to read, write and cypher.
Faraday was pushed to stop school and work at a young age to help support the family. He delivered newspaper for a book binder for a time, before committing to a full apprenticeship to the book binder at the age of 14. It was during his apprenticeship that Faraday was exposed to scientific happenings that he would read about in the texts he had to bind. One of the most early influential texts was an article on electricity in the third edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. After discovering that this was an area he was interested in, Faraday began to seek out scientific texts and to experiment on his own with crude materials including an electrostatic generator and a voltaic pile.
Eventually, Faraday got a ticket to attend a chemical lecture by Sir Humphry Davy at the Royal Institute of Great Britain in London. He was fully absorbed in the lecture and took thorough, dutiful notes of the things he learned. It is believed that this experience is what truly ignited his passion to pursue the sciences as a career, because afterward, Faraday sent a letter to Davy containing his notes on the lecture and an expressed desire to learn more by working for Davy as a lab assistant.
Although his letter was dismissed at first, Davy never forgot about Faraday’s earnest desire for learning. When one of Davy’s lab assistants was fired, he reached out to Faraday to ask if he still wanted the position. Faraday jumped at the chance and began a second apprenticeship under Davy where he acquired a vast knowledge for chemistry and electrochemistry, sending his career off on its trajectory.
Influence on the RF Industry
In 1820, Faraday left his apprenticeship with Davy having reached a level of mastery in the chemistry world and he wanted to branch out independently to pursue his own theories. Having discovered a new compound that he called Benzene in the 1820s, Faraday settled into a permanent position at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. He also married his wife Sarah Barnard, and began research in electricity and magnetism that would eventually change the industry.
Based upon the findings of Hans Christian Orsted and Andre-Marie Ampere, it was determined that the flow of electrical current through wire created a magnetic field around the wire. This showed that magnetic force is circular in nature, creating a cylinder of magnetism around the wire. This was all theory and had never been observed or tested in an experiment, so Faraday took this theory to the next level and began to create new apparatuses he built to prove the theory through physical observation.
Faraday’s extensive laboratory skill enabled him to create an original apparatus that could isolate the magnetic pole and convert electrical energy into mechanical energy and essentially creating the first electric motor. In 1831, Faraday made the first dynamo, known as the Faraday disc, a forerunner of today’s electrical generator, when he discovered the induction of electric currents. This was created by winding a primary coil and creating a current with a magnet. When the magnet was moved in and out of the coil of wire, a current was induced in the coil.
Later Life
Faraday continued to experiment and lecture about his findings until his later years. Queen Victoria rewarded Faraday’s lifelong accomplishments by granting him the use of a house at Hampton Court and even offered him the honor of knighthood. While Faraday accepted the use of the house, he declined the knighthood to honor his humble beginnings and his religious beliefs. Growing up as a Sandemanian, he believed that it went against the word of the bible to accumulate riches and pursue worldly reward.
In 1858, Faraday retired to the house gifted to him by Queen Victoria and lived there until his death in 1867 and was buried in Highgate Cemetery, London. Throughout his career, Faraday was honored by having a unit of capacitance named after him called the Farad, and he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society (the UK’s national academy for sciences) and twice refused to become the president. Overall, Faraday lived an interesting and fulfilling life and greatly influenced the direction and advancement of the RF and electromagnetic industry.
You must be logged in to post a comment.