Brad Hobbs, age 14, of Miami, Fla., for is question:
WHO WAS MICHAEL FARADAY?
Michael Faraday was an English physicist and chemist who is famous for his experiments in electricity and his discovery of electromagnetic induction. He was born almost 200 years ago, in 1791.
At the age of 14 he was apprenticed to a London bookbinder and bookseller. It was during this period of time that he became very interested in science. He read every scientific book that he could find.
Faraday attended a series of lectures that were given by a famous chemist named Sir Humphrey Davy. He took careful notes during the lectures and later sent them to Davy. Davy was so greatly impressed with the notes that he made the young man his laboratory assistant.
Faraday then started to study chemistry under Davy's direction. He experimented with various gases anti succeeded in liquefying chlorine in 1823. He was elected to the Royal Society the following year.
Next, Faraday did research with optical glass and experiments that resulted in the discovery of benzene. After that, in 1815, he became the director of the laboratory at the Royal Institution.
A Danish physicist named Hans Oersted had earlier discovered that electricity could produce magnetic fields. Faraday was sure that the opposite was also true: that magnetism could produce electricity.
Faraday performed a number of experiments in 1831 that resulted in the discovery of electromagnetic induction, or the production of electricity by magnetism.
By rotating a copper disk between the poles of an electromagnet, Faraday produced an electric current. This simple machine was the world's first dynamo.
In later experiments, Faraday proved that the five kinds of electricity that were thought to exist at the time were all the same. The five types were frictional, galvanic, voltaic, magnetic and thermal.
Faraday proved that all electricity, regardless of its source, is identical in nature.
The principles Faraday formulated led to the development of electric motors and generators.
Faraday also experimented with electrolysis. One of his discoveries later proved to be evidence for the existence of electrons. It is called Faraday's Law of Electrolysis.
Faraday's father was a blacksmith in Newington, Surrey, England. The boy received very little formal education, but that didn't stop him from educating himself.
When Davy retired as a professor of chemistry, Faraday succeeded him. Two years later he was given a pension for life. He received many scientific honors, including the Royal and Rumford metals of the Royal Society. He was offered the presidency of the society but declined the honor.