The Life of Micheal Faraday

Humphry Davy discovered many things that helped the world, such as Barium, Calcium, Sodium, and Boron; but his greatest discovery was a man, known by the name of Micheal Faraday. Faraday was born in 1791 to a poor family and was the third of four children. He was given only the simplest education and was forced to learn on his own.

At age 14, he became the apprentice of George Riebau, a book binder and book seller at a local store on Blandford Street. Over his seven-year apprenticeship as a book binder, he read many, many books, including Issac Watts The Improvement of the Mind and Jane Marcet's Conversations on Chemistry, both of which inspired in a big way. But what interested Faraday more than anything, was electricity.

In 1812, Faraday was now at 20 years of age, and was the age of his apprenticeship. Faraday was attending the lectures given by Humphry Davy of the Royal Institution and Royal Society, and John Tatum, founder of the City Philosophical Society. Faraday sent Davy a 300 page long book of all his notes that he had taken at Davey's Lectures.

In 1813, Davy had temporally lost his eyesight in an experiment with nitrogen trichloride; so decided to hire Faraday to be his eyes and carry out his experiments. At the same time, one of the Royal Institution's assistants had been fired, and Davey was asked to find a replacement, so he appointed Faraday as the Chemical Assistant at the Royal Institution on March 1^st, 1813. Davy then entrusted Faraday with preparation of nitrogen trichloride samples, and they both became injured in an explosion of this very sensitive substance.

Faraday married Sarah Barnard on June 1821, they had met through their families at the Sandemanian church, and he announced his faith to the Sandemanian congregation the month after they were married.

Faraday was very religious, and long after his marriage, Faraday became a deacon and for two terms he served as an elder in the meeting house of his childhood. The church was located in Paul's Alley in Barbican. Historians say that "a strong sense of the unity of God and nature pervaded Faraday's life and work.".

In his lifetime, Faraday was offered a knighthood and twice he was offered presidency of the Royal Society; but he turned them down for religious reasons and said that he would prefer to stay "plain Mr Faraday to the end".

Micheal Faraday died August 25^th, 1867, at the age of 75. One of the world's greatest and most important scientists gone forever. He is remembered as one of the world greatest scientists, and will be for much longer.