The Life and Work of Michael Faraday - Research Paper Example

The Life and Work of Michael Faraday Faraday was and still remains one of the greatest scientific personalities of all time. He is best known for his discoveries in electrochemistry and electricity. His discoveries of electro-magnetic rotations and inductions provided the basics for electrical engineering, and his discoveries of magneto-optical effect and diamagnetism laid the foundations for modern physics. Nevertheless, Faraday was also involved in practical application of science and in communicating it to the world. This paper examines the life of Faraday and his contributions to the scientific world. Early Life Michael Faraday was an English Chemist and Physicist who lived between 1791 and 1867. He was born on 22 September, 1791 in the City of Newington, England. His family was not well off; therefore, Faraday could not receive a formal education, but instead just the basic essentials (Bhat 33). At the age of 14, Faraday became the apprentice to George Riebau in Blandford Street. He served as an apprentice for seven years; during this period he was able to read all that he desired. For example, he read the Isaac Watts’ book, The Improvement of the Mind, and implemented the principles and suggestions in it (Thompson 5). He also developed an interest in science, especially electricity, after reading the Jane Marcet’s book Conservations on Chemistry (Bhat 34). At the age of twenty and nearing the end of his apprenticeship, Faraday obtained tickets to attend the lectures of Humphry Davy at the royal institution in 1812. After the lectures, Faraday made a 386 page book based on notes that he had taken from the lectures and sent them to Davy together a job application to be Davy’s assistant (Thompson 10). Davy was very impressed with his work, but at the time he already had an assistant and could not hire Faraday. However, when Davy was temporarily blinded in an accident with nitrogen trichloride, he employed Faraday as his secretary. Eventually, Faraday got employed as a chemical assistant at the Royal Institution on March 1, 1813 when Sir Davy’s assistant was fired because of misconduct (The Life and Discoveries of Michael Faraday 12). In 1813, Davy resigned from his post at the Royal Institution and set out for along tour of the continent. His valet did not wish to go with him to the tour; therefore, he picked Faraday to go with him as his scientific assistant and act as his valet until he found a replacement in Paris. Throughout the trip, Davy was unable to get a replacement for his valet, hence, Faraday was forced to work both as an assistant and a valet (The Life and Discoveries of Michael Faraday 15). Davy’s wife, Jane, did not treat Faraday as an equal but rather treated him as a servant. This conduct of Jane angered Faraday to an extent that at some point he thought of returning to England alone and give up on science altogether (Thompson 28). However, although the trip made Faraday so miserable, it introduced him to prominent scientists, such as Ampere and Volta. Besides being a renowned scientist, Faraday was a devoted Christian of the Sandemanian denomination. After his marriage at the church, he confessed his faith to the congregation and thereafter served as a Deacon (Thompson 51). He also served as an elder in the meeting house of his youth for two years. Faraday was married to Sarah Barnard on 12 June, 1821; throughout there life they were not blessed with any child (The American journal of science and arts 146). Faraday’s work Faraday’s work was majorly in the field of chemistry and physics with his main contributions mainly in electrochemistry and electromagnetism. Chemistry The earliest works of Faraday in the field of chemistry began when he was still an assistant to Humphry Davy. In 1820, Faraday was mainly involved in the study of chlorine and discovered new compounds made from carbon and chlorine, C2Cl6 and C2Cl4 (Faraday 51). He also carried out the first rough experiments on the diffusion of gases and managed to liquefy several gases. Nevertheless, Faraday carried out investigations on the alloys of steel and produced various new glasses to be used for optical purposes. Among the glasses that Faraday discovered was the heavy glass which is used in magnetic fields to determine the rotation of the plane of polarization of light. The glass was also found to be the first substance that could be repelled by the poles of a magnet (The Life and Discoveries of Michael Faraday 22). Faraday also invented the early type of the Bunsen burner which is used as a source of heat in various laboratories in the world. He also discovered various chemical substances, including benzene among others. Faraday’s ability to liquefy gases also provided a strong basis to the concept of molecular aggregation and helped in establishing that gases are the vapours of liquids that possess a very low boiling point (The Life and Discoveries of Michael Faraday 23). Faraday also determined the substances or elements that chlorine clathrate hydrate, which was discovered by Davy in 1810, is made of. He is also the one who discovered or came up with the laws of electrolysis and popularized terminologies, such as anode, ion, cathode and electrode which were proposed by William Whewell. Faraday was also the first chemist to have reported what later came to be known as metallic nanoparticles. Electricity and Magnetism As previously said, Faraday’s work was mainly in electricity and magnetism. His earliest recorded work in these fields was the construction of a voltaic pile which he used to decompose sulphate of magnesia (Thompson 168). In 1821, after Davy and William Hyde Wollaston had failed to design an electric motor from the phenomenon of electromagnetism discovered by Hans Christian Orsted, Faraday built two devices that produced electromagnetic rotations. One of them, which is now referred to as the homopolar motor, produced continuous circular motions that were engendered by circular magnetic forces around a wire that extended to a swimming pool of mercury in which a magnet was placed; if supplied with current, the wire would then rotate around the magnet. After making these experiments and inventions, Faraday was very excited and published the results without acknowledging either Davy or Wollaston in his work. This move raised a lot of controversy in the Royal Society and destroyed his relationship with Davy; as a result, he was assigned to other activities and stayed out of electromagnetic research for several years (Thompson 56). However, in 1831, two years after the death of Davy, Faraday again began a series of experiments and discovered electromagnetic induction. Faraday also showed that magnetism could produce electricity. He discovered that, if he moved a magnet through a loop of wire, an electric current was produced. Therefore, through this he established that a change in magnetic field produces an electric field (The Life and Discoveries of Michael Faraday 34-35). This relationship was used by James clerk to model a mathematical law which came to be known as the Faraday's law. Faraday also used the principles he had discovered to build an electric dynamo which laid foundation for the discovery of the modern generators. In 1839, after completing a series of experiments on the fundamental nature of electricity, Faraday concluded that there were no various types of electricity, instead, only a single electricity exists. Towards the end of his career, Faraday proposed to the scientific community that electromagnetic forces be extended into the empty space around the conductor, but his idea was rejected. However, his proposition was eventually accepted, but he died before seeing it. Nevertheless, Faraday’s experiments and inventions formed the basis for the modern electromagnetic technology. Diamagnetism The phenomenon of diamagnetism was first discovered by Faraday in 1845 when he established that many materials exhibit weak repulsions from magnetic field. He also discovered magnetic fields aligned in the direction that the light is moving could be used to rotate the polarization plane of linearly polarized light (Thompson 176). This is now referred to as the Faraday Effect. Faraday was pleased with his work and wrote in his notebook that he had succeeded in illuminating magnetic curves and magnetizing rays of light. Faraday also tried to use a spectroscope to determine the change of spectral lines by applied magnetic field in 1862 but was unsuccessful because the equipment he was using was not sufficient for a definite determination of spectral change. However, his work was acknowledge by Pieter Zeeman who won a Nobel Prize in 1902 after using an improved apparatus to study the same phenomenon and succeeding (Zeeman 347). Through a cage, which came to be known as Faraday’s cage, he also demonstrated that exterior charges have no effect on anything enclosed within a conductor, because exterior charges often redistribute in such a way that they cancel the interior fields. Other Works Besides working in scientific research, Faraday also worked in the education sector as a lecturer. In 1854, he gave his views on education at the Royal Institution, and in 1862 he also lectured on the same topic before a Public Schools Commission in the Great Britain. Also as a professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution, Faraday gave a run of lectures, such as Christmas lectures on the chemistry and physics of flames (Thompson 234). Faraday also undertook various, and often long, service projects for private firms and the government. He carried out investigations on explosions that occurred in the local mines, acted as an expert witness in courts and prepared high quality glass used for optical purposes. In addition, Faraday also spent most of his time in construction and operation of light houses and protection of ships from rusting (Thompson 171). He was also actively involved in environmental science or engineering. Michael Faraday's Awards and Recognition In 1824, Faraday was elected as a member of the Royal Society in spite of Davy being opposed to it; in 1833 he became the first Fullerian Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution (The Life and Discoveries of Michael Faraday 28). In 1832, he was granted an honorary doctoral degree in civil law by the University of Oxford. In the same year he also received the Copley Medal and the Royal Medal from the Royal Society (Bhat 34). In 1838, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He was also made a member of the Senate of the University of London in 1836. Final Years of Faraday In his later years, Faraday continued to give charismatic lectures on various topics including the chemical history of the candle. However, in 1864, Michael Faraday refused to become the president of the Royal Institution and gracefully retired from scientific world (Bhat 34). He lived in Hampton court in a grace and favor house given to him by the Queen Victoria. (The American journal of science and arts 146) He died at the age of 75 on 25 August, 1867 and was buried at Highgate Cemetery. Conclusion Although the scientist is dead, Faraday’s work will live. His contributions in the field of chemistry and physics, particularly in electrochemistry and electro-magnetic, have become the foundation for numerous modern technologies. Having no formal education, Faraday made remarkable achievements and remains one of the most influential scientists of all times. Work Cited Bhat, N. Suman. 100 Mini Sketches of the Great: Sura's Biography Series. Sura Books, 2005. Print. Faraday, Michael. “On two new Compounds of Chlorine and Carbon, and On a New Compound of Iodine, Carbon, and Hydrogen”. Philosophical Transactions 111: 47, 1821. Print. Silvanus, Thompson. Michael Faraday: His Life and Work. Whitefish, Montana: Kessinger Publishing, 2005. Print. The American journal of science and arts. Boston: S. Converse, 1868. Print. The Life and Discoveries of Michael Faraday. Forgotten Books. Print. Zeeman, Pieter. “The Effect of Magnetization on the Nature of Light Emitted By a Substance”. Nature 55 (1424): 347, 1897. Print. Read More