With constant power cuts, today, we have realised the value of electricity. We should be grateful to Michael Faraday for discovering the production of electric current from magnetic force. He also made the way for his followers to produce the dynamo and the generator of electric current.
Boyhood
Michael Faraday was born at Newington Butts on September 22, 1791. His father, James Faraday, was a blacksmith in London. After learning the rudiments of reading, writing and arithmetic he left school at the age of 13 to work as an errand boy for a bookseller. He also delivered newspapers. During his leisure he played marbles with his friends in the streets.
Apprenticeship
About a year later, he was apprenticed to learn the trade of a bookbinder and stationer. He became a voracious reader and attended lectures to learn natural philosophy. In the meantime, his attention was drawn to science and chemistry.
An apprentice
After some time, Faraday became an assistant to Sir Humphry Davy. He joined the Royal Institution and settled down to a life of research and discovery. In 1823, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and two years later was made director of the laboratory at the Royal Institution.
Experiments and discovery
He conducted experiments in electricity. In November 1831, Faraday made known his epoc-making discovery to the Royal Society.
He showed that an electro-motive force is set up in a conducting wire when it is moved at right angles to a magnetic field. If the wire is part of a closed circuit, its motion results in an ‘induced’ current. In 1865,Faraday gave up his active work. He died on August 25, 1867.