Michael Glugla, age 31, of West Albs, Wise., for his question:
Who was Michael Faraday?
The children of London town welcomed him along with Santa Claus. He came at Christmas time, all wrinkles and twinkles, to tell them about the wonders of Chemistry. This was more than 100 years ago. In his lifetime, Michael Faraday Opened the doors to new branches of chemistry. We can thank him for the generator, among other things and for his ideas that led scientists to discover radio and electromagnetism. He was born near London in the fall of 1791. His father was a simple blacksmith, and Michael Faraday was a simple man all his lift. He refused all titles and Degrees, though he became the greatest scientist of his day. As a boy, he worked for a bookbinder. The books aroused his curiosity, and he spent hours reading and taking notes. Faraday was a self educated man. One day he was given a pass to a series of letters. The lecturer was Sir Humphrey Davy, world famed scientist and head of the world famed London Institute. Faraday, the young scientist, took notes and added diagrams. Faraday, the young bookbinder, bound his pages and sent the volume to Davy with a bold request for a job at the institute. His request was granted. Faraday was then 22, and he worked at the London Institute for the remaining 54 years of his busy life. He at first followed Davy's interest in chemicals.
Volta had invented the battery, and Davy had used it to isolate five new e1ements Faraday probed deeper into the nature of chemicals. He liquified gases and separated compounds. He distilled benzene a hydrocarbon chemical which opened the door to organic chemistry. His interests later led him to the mysteries of magnetism and electricity. Faraday probed deeper than most men of his day to find the laws and principles of science. He found the positive and negative nature of electricity and used this law to analyze compounds and atomic particles. He used electrolysis to find atomic weight. He found a relationship between polarized light and magnetism. This Revealed electromagnetism to later scientists. He showed how atomic particles cause certain atoms to form certain compounds,work which led later scientists to discover the electron. But Faraday's greatest technical contribution was the dynamo the electric generator.
He 1ived a busy life, but when Christmas came, he found time to talk to the children of London town. They listened wide eyed as the pixie faced man, wrinkled with smiles and topped with wooly white hair, explained to them what really goes on, for example, when a candle burns.
Faraday was a great one for taking notes, and countless items are recorded in his diary. He loved words, especially the ones he invented. As he found new laws and principles, he invented new words to explain them. Scientists can thank him for the words electrode and electrolyte, anode and cathode, cation, ion and anion. We can all thank him for the tremendous boost he gave to the progress of science.