MICHAEL FARADAY.
Michael Farady.
The pupil of Sir Humphrey Davy, and himself the greatest philosophical chemist of his time, was born on the 22nd of September, 1791. The son of a smith, who was unable to give him any better education than that afforded by a common day-school in the neighborhood, reading, writing and arithmetic embraced all his training for life, so far as schools were concerned; but he had that within him which from these poor beginnings made a magnificent end. A fondness for reading filled his mind with miscellaneous knowledge and paved the way for all that followed.
At thirteen he was apprenticed to a bookseller and binder, but his heart was even thus early in science rather than trade, and he paid more attention to rude experiments than to his immediate calling. A gentleman having taken him to hear some of Sir Humphrey Davy’s last lectures at the Royal Institution, Faraday wrote out the notes he had taken in a quarto volume, and sent them to Sir Humphrey Davy, with a letter asking that, if he could, would he give him a chance of escaping from trade to philosophy. The result was his employment as an assistant in the laboratory of the Royal Institution in 1813, at the age of 22, after he had been a bookseller for nine years.
From this time Faraday’s progress was rapid. In 1820 his name was first made prominent for chemical discoveries, and from that date every year recorded some new research and new triumph, till in 1832 his eminence was so thoroughly felt that the University of Oxford made him a D. C. L., and in 1835 Lord Melbourne’s Government gave him a pension of £300 a year. Honours meanwhile were showered upon him; he became one of eight foreign associates of the Imperial Academy of Science at Paris, a commander of the Legion of Honour, a knight of the Prussian Order of Merit and member of numerous scientific bodies in Europe and America.
The secret of his success, apart from his genius, lay in his wonderful industry and calm and careful attention to every detail of what he essayed.
In electricity and magnetism his researches made him one of the foremost; his language in lecturing was always simple; his experiments convincing, and his enthusiasms so catching, that every one felt engrossed by subjects which so absorbed the lecturer.
He was a true philosopher, taking nothing for granted, and thinking nothing too insignificant to follow out to the utmost. Many books have been written on his discoveries, and several on his life and character, but it is felt that no one who did not know him could realize the man as he was.