Faraday, MICHAEL, one of the most distinguished chemists and natural philosophers of the 19th century, was born, a blacksmith's son, at Newington Butts, near London, 22d September 1791. At thirteen he was apprenticed to a bookbinder; yet even then he devoted his leisure hours to science, and made experiments with an electrical machine of his own construction. Chance having procured him admission, in 1812, to the chemical lectures of Sir H. Davy, the latter engaged him as his assistant at the Royal Institution. He travelled to the Continent with Davy, as his assistant and amanuensis. On their return to London Davy confided to Faraday the performance of certain experiments, which led in his hands to the condensation of gases into liquids by pressure. In 1827 he succeeded to Davy's chair of Chemistry in the Royal Institution. He was created D.C.L. in 1832.
In chemistry his treatise on Chemical Manipulation (1827; 2d ed. 1842) is even now a very valuable book of reference. As discoveries or investigations of a high order in this branch of science we may mention new compounds of chlorine and carbon (1821); alloys of steel (1822); compounds of hydrogen and carbon (1825); action of sulphuric acid on naphthaline (1826); decomposition of hydrocarbons by expansion (1827); and the very valuable series of experiments, made in 1829-30, on the manufacture of glass for optical purposes, which resulted in one of his greatest discoveries, to be afterwards mentioned.
As practical applications of science his suggestions as to the preparation of the lungs for diving and the ventilation of lighthouse lamps are conspicuous, as are also his celebrated letter on table-turning and his lecture on mental education.
To enumerate only the most prominent of his publications on physical science, we may commence with the condensation of the gases (already referred to); then we have limits of vaporisation, optical deceptions, acoustical figures, re-gelation, relation of gold and other metals to light, and conservation of force. Of these the condensation of gases into liquids and solids, though in some cases previously effected by others (and Faraday was ever the foremost to acknowledge another's priority), he really made his own, not only by the extent and accuracy of his experiments, but by the exquisite experimental methods by which he obtained the results. His ideas on re-gelation and its connection with the motion of glaciers have not met with universal acceptance, though (see HEAT, ICE, GLACIER) there is no dispute as to his being correct in his facts. In regard to conservation of force, he seems to have been misled by the incorrect use of the word Force (q.v.), for in his article on the subject he describes experiments made with the view of proving the conservation of force proper; whereas the doctrine of conservation asserts merely the conservation of 'energy,' which is not in any sense force. He may be right also; but, if so, it will be by a new discovery having no connection whatever with 'conservation of energy.'
His Christmas lectures at the Royal Institution, though professedly addressed to the young, contain much that may well be pondered by the old. His manner, his unvarying success in illustration, and his felicitous choice of expression, though the subjects were often of the most abstruse nature, were such as to charm and attract all classes of hearers. Besides his Lectures on the Non-metallic Elements and Lectures on the Chemical History of a Candle, we have his Lectures on the Physical Forces, a simple work, but in reality most profound, even in its slightest remarks.
But the great work of his life is the series of Experimental Researches on Electricity, published in the Philosophical Transactions during forty years and more. Fully to understand all the discoveries contained in that extraordinary set of papers would require a knowledge of all that has been discovered during that time as to electricity, magnetism, electro-magnetism, and diamagnetism. We may merely mention the following, almost all of which are discoveries of the first importance. They are given in the order of publication, which is nearly that of discovery: (1) Induced electricity (1831), comprehending and explaining a vast variety of phenomena, some of which have already been applied in practice (especially as magneto-electricity) to lighthouses, electro-plating, firing of mines, telegraphy, and medical purposes—electric currents derived from the earth's magnetism; (2) the electrotonic state of matter (1831); (3) identity of electricity from different sources (1833); (4) equivalents in electro-chemical decomposition (1834); (5) electrostatic induction—specific inductive capacity (1838); (6) relation of electric and magnetic forces (1838); (7) the electricity of the
Gymnotus (1839); (8) hydro-electricity (1843); (9) magnetic rotatory polarisation (1846), effected by means of the optical glass already mentioned; (10) diamagnetism and the magnetic condition of all matter (1846); (11) polarity of diamagnetics, and the relation of diamagnetism to crystalline forms (1849); (12) relation of gravity to electricity (1851)—this, as before remarked, is Faraday's attempt to prove a conservation of force proper; (13) atmospheric magnetism (1851), an attempt to explain the diurnal changes of the earth's magnetic force by the solar effect on the oxygen of the air, a very interesting paper. Faraday's work is not only of extreme importance in itself, but it has been of the utmost consequence to science by leading Clerk-Maxwell to his wonderful investigations of the dynamics of the electro-magnetic field and the electro-magnetic theory of light.
Faraday, who had received a pension in 1835, was in 1858 given a house in Hampton Court. In 1862 he delivered his last discourse on 'gas-furnaces,' and advocated the use of magneto-electric light in lighthouses. In 1865 he resigned the position of adviser to the Trinity House, also that of director of the laboratory of the Royal Institution. Faraday, who was a devout Christian and a member of the religious body called Sandemanians or Glassites, died at Hampton Court, 25th August 1867. See Life by Tyndall (1868; 5th ed. 1894), Bence Jones (1870), and J. H. Gladstone (1872); and W. Jerrold (1891).