Date context
1791–1867
From bookbinding to the laboratory
Faraday was born in south London and trained as a bookbinder. He joined the Royal Institution laboratory in 1813 and travelled in Europe with Humphry Davy before continuing his work in London.
He became Director of the Laboratory in 1825. Building and adjusting apparatus, recording observations and comparing experimental conditions were central to his work. His notebooks and correspondence preserve much of that process.
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Experiments with electricity and magnetism
In 1821 Faraday investigated electromagnetic rotation. In 1831 he established experimental evidence for electromagnetic induction: changes in magnetic conditions could produce electrical effects.
His surviving ring-coil apparatus has two windings on an iron ring. Switching current in one winding produced a temporary effect in the other. The response occurred during change, rather than continuing unchanged after the first current had become steady.
Chemistry and the field concept
Faraday also studied gases, benzene and electrolysis. His laws of electrolysis related the quantity of electricity passing through an electrolyte to the amount of chemical change, connecting electrical measurement with chemical processes.
In 1845 he investigated magnetic effects on light and diamagnetism. His work on lines of force helped shape the field approach to electromagnetism, which James Clerk Maxwell subsequently developed mathematically.
Science before an audience
Faraday helped establish the Royal Institution’s Friday Evening Discourses and Christmas Lectures and gave many demonstrations himself. Familiar objects and visible experiments allowed audiences to follow arguments about combustion, chemistry and electricity.
The Chemical History of a Candle was edited for publication by William Crookes from Faraday’s lectures. Faraday died in 1867; the Institution’s apparatus and archives preserve both his research and his public teaching.