1791 – 1867 · London, England
Self-taught experimentalist who transformed our understanding of electricity and magnetism, introducing the field concept that would reshape all of physics.
Born on 22 September 1791 in Newington Butts, Surrey, to a poor blacksmith family. Faraday received only the most basic formal education, learning to read, write, and do simple arithmetic at a local church school.
At age 14, he was apprenticed to bookbinder George Riebau, where he spent seven years. During this time, he read voraciously, particularly drawn to Jane Marcet's Conversations on Chemistry and the electricity articles in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
In 1812, a customer gave him tickets to attend lectures by Sir Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution. Faraday took meticulous notes, bound them, and sent them to Davy as a job application. By March 1813, he was hired as Davy's laboratory assistant.
Son of a blacksmith, third of four children. The family often struggled to afford food; Faraday later recalled being given a single loaf of bread to last an entire week.
His apprenticeship (1805-1812) was his true university. He built a simple electrostatic generator and a Leyden jar from household materials.
A devout member of the Sandemanian Church, a small Christian sect. His faith shaped his conviction that nature's laws must be unified and elegant.
Rose from laboratory assistant to Fullerian Professor of Chemistry. The RI became Faraday's lifelong scientific home, where he delivered his famous Friday Evening Discourses and Christmas Lectures for children.
Traveled with Humphry Davy across France, Italy, and Switzerland as his assistant. Met Volta, Ampère, and other leading scientists, though Davy's wife treated him as a servant.
Demonstrated the first device converting electrical energy into continuous mechanical motion — the principle behind the electric motor. This strained his relationship with Davy, who suspected plagiarism from William Wollaston.
Published the landmark Experimental Researches in Electricity in three volumes, documenting over 16,000 meticulously numbered experiments across thirty series of papers.
Faraday worked during the first Industrial Revolution, when Britain was transforming from an agrarian society into a manufacturing powerhouse. Gas lighting was replacing candles; steam engines powered factories and railways.
In electricity, Volta's pile (1800) had opened entirely new possibilities. Ørsted discovered in 1820 that a current-carrying wire deflected a compass needle, and Ampère quickly developed a mathematical theory of electrodynamics. The challenge was: could magnetism produce electricity?
The scientific establishment was dominated by mathematically trained gentlemen. Faraday, with no formal mathematics, was a radical outsider whose geometric, intuitive approach was initially dismissed by Continental theorists.
Ørsted (1820): current produces magnetism. Ampère: mathematical force law between currents. Arago: magnetization by current.
No university degree, working-class origins. Faraday navigated a world where birth and education determined scientific credibility.
The Royal Society and Royal Institution were central hubs. Patronage, public lectures, and demonstrations were key to funding and reputation.
On 29 August 1831, Faraday discovered that a changing magnetic field induces an electromotive force (EMF) in a conductor. Using an iron ring with two coils, he observed a transient current in one coil when current was switched on or off in the other.
The key insight: it is the change in magnetic flux, not the mere presence of magnetism, that produces electricity. This principle, later formalized as Faraday's law, is the foundation of all electrical generators and transformers.
Within weeks, he demonstrated induction with a bar magnet thrust into a solenoid, and with a spinning copper disc between magnetic poles (the "Faraday disc"), creating the first homopolar generator.
"I have long held an opinion, almost amounting to conviction... that the various forms under which the forces of matter are made manifest have one common origin."
— Michael Faraday, Experimental Researches in Electricity, 1831The induced EMF in a closed loop equals the negative rate of change of magnetic flux through the loop: EMF = -dΦ/dt. The negative sign (Lenz's law) ensures the induced current opposes the change causing it, conserving energy.
A copper disc rotating between magnetic poles produced a continuous (DC) current — the first homopolar generator. Unlike modern generators, it produces low voltage but can deliver enormous currents.
Two circuits are coupled: changing current in one induces EMF in the other. This is the operating principle of every transformer, from power grid step-up units to the charger in your phone.
Faraday noticed a spark when disconnecting a long coil. The coil's own changing field induces a "back-EMF" in itself. Joseph Henry independently discovered this property, leading to the unit of inductance (the henry).
Between 1833 and 1834, Faraday established that the amount of chemical change at an electrode is directly proportional to the quantity of electricity passed, and that for a given quantity of charge, different substances are deposited in proportion to their chemical equivalent weights.
He coined the terminology still used today: electrode, anode, cathode, ion, and electrolyte — terms suggested by William Whewell.
These laws hinted powerfully at the atomic nature of electric charge, decades before the electron was discovered.
The mass of substance deposited at an electrode is directly proportional to the quantity of electric charge passed: m ∝ Q. This established a precise, quantitative link between electricity and chemical change.
For the same quantity of charge, different substances are deposited in proportion to their equivalent weights: m ∝ M/z, where M is molar mass and z is the valence number.
F ≈ 96,485 C/mol. The charge needed to deposit one mole of a monovalent substance. When later combined with Avogadro's number, it yields the elementary charge e = F/N_A.
Faraday's laws implied that electricity comes in discrete, indivisible packets associated with atoms. This was among the earliest evidence for what we now call the electron, discovered by J.J. Thomson in 1897.
Faraday's most revolutionary and far-reaching idea: physical forces are not transmitted instantaneously across empty space (action at a distance), but propagate through a field that fills all of space and carries energy.
Faraday visualized fields as bundles of lines stretching through space. The density of lines represents field strength; their direction shows the force on a test charge or pole. Iron filings on paper famously reveal these patterns.
Maxwell would later translate Faraday's geometric intuitions into precise differential equations. Einstein credited Faraday's field concept as the most profound change in physics since Newton.
Notice a phenomenon with meticulous care
Form an intuitive, geometric picture
Build apparatus to isolate the effect
Vary one parameter at a time, record everything
Extract universal principle from specifics
Faraday numbered every experiment sequentially (over 16,000 entries across 30 years). His Diary is one of the great documents of science — precise, honest about failures, and filled with brilliant asides.
Faraday thought in pictures, not equations. He compensated with extraordinary physical intuition. His non-mathematical field concept was initially dismissed by Continental physicists, until Maxwell proved it rigorous.
Whewell coined Faraday's terminology; Maxwell formalized the field concept; Thomson's electron vindicated electrolysis laws.
Faraday's relationship with his mentor Humphry Davy became strained after the electromagnetic rotation discovery of 1821. Davy accused Faraday of stealing ideas from William Wollaston, and when Faraday was nominated for the Royal Society in 1824, Davy cast the sole opposing vote.
On the Continent, mathematical physicists like Ampère and Weber favored action-at-a-distance theories. They viewed Faraday's "lines of force" as a qualitative fantasy, lacking rigorous mathematical foundation. It took Maxwell's genius to vindicate Faraday's vision.
Faraday also clashed with the priority claims of Joseph Henry, who independently discovered self-induction. Though both men handled the dispute graciously, it highlighted the competitive nature of 19th-century science.
"The greatest discovery Davy ever made was Michael Faraday."
— Often attributed to various contemporariesFaraday twice declined the presidency of the Royal Society and refused a knighthood. He wished to remain "plain Mr. Faraday to the last," consistent with his Sandemanian beliefs about worldly honours.
The dominant Newtonian paradigm held that forces act instantaneously across empty space. Faraday's field concept — that space itself carries forces — was radical and would only triumph with Maxwell and Einstein.
Maxwell translated Faraday's field concept into four differential equations that unified electricity, magnetism, and optics. Without Faraday's physical intuition, Maxwell had no foundation on which to build.
Einstein's curved spacetime is a direct descendant of Faraday's field concept. Einstein kept a portrait of Faraday on his study wall alongside Newton and Maxwell.
Modern particle physics describes all fundamental forces as fields. The electromagnetic field, photons, and QED all trace their conceptual ancestry to Faraday's lines of force.
His demonstration that a hollow conductor shields its interior from external electric fields is essential in electronics, MRI machines, and electromagnetic shielding everywhere.
Every power station on Earth uses Faraday's principle of electromagnetic induction to convert mechanical energy to electrical energy.
Mutual induction enables voltage conversion across the power grid, from generation at 25 kV to transmission at 400 kV to household 240V.
Faraday's 1821 electromagnetic rotation principle powers everything from industrial machinery to electric vehicles to laptop cooling fans.
His electrolysis laws underpin metal plating for corrosion resistance, jewelry, electronics manufacturing, and decorative coatings.
Faraday cages shield MRI scanners from external electromagnetic interference. Induction coils detect the nuclear magnetic resonance signals.
Inductive coupling between coils transfers energy wirelessly to smartphones, electric toothbrushes, and increasingly, electric vehicles.
Alan Hirshfeld (2006). An accessible, beautifully written biography that captures both the science and the man behind it.
Nancy Forbes & Basil Mahon (2014). Dual biography tracing how Faraday's intuitions became Maxwell's equations.
Michael Faraday (1839-1855). Faraday's own magnum opus in three volumes. Dense but rewarding primary source.
Ed. Thomas Martin (1932-36). The complete laboratory notebooks, seven volumes of meticulously recorded experiments.
Ed. Peter Day (1999). Selected letters revealing Faraday's personality, friendships, and scientific reasoning.
Frank A.J.L. James (2010). Concise overview by the leading Faraday scholar and editor of his correspondence.
"Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature."
— Michael Faraday, Laboratory Diary, 19 March 1849Michael Faraday · 1791–1867