The Life and Work of Michael Faraday Research Paper

The Life and Work of Michael Faraday - Research Paper Example He was born on 22 September, 1791 in the City of Newington, England. His family was not well off; therefore, Faraday could not receive a formal education, but instead just the basic essentials (Bhat 33). At the age of 14, Faraday became the apprentice to George Riebau in Blandford Street. He served as an apprentice for seven years; during this period he was able to read all that he desired. For example, he read the Isaac Watts’ book, The Improvement of the Mind, and implemented the principles and suggestions in it (Thompson 5). He also developed an interest in science, especially electricity, after reading the Jane Marcet’s book Conservations on Chemistry (Bhat 34). At the age of twenty and nearing the end of his apprenticeship, Faraday obtained tickets to attend the lectures of Humphry Davy at the royal institution in 1812. After the lectures, Faraday made a 386 page book based on notes that he had taken from the lectures and sent them to Davy together a job applicatio n to be Davy’s assistant (Thompson 10). Davy was very impressed with his work, but at the time he already had an assistant and could not hire Faraday. However, when Davy was temporarily blinded in an accident with nitrogen trichloride, he employed Faraday as his secretary. Eventually, Faraday got employed as a chemical assistant at the Royal Institution on March 1, 1813 when Sir Davy’s assistant was fired because of misconduct (The Life and Discoveries of Michael Faraday 12). In 1813, Davy resigned from his post at the Royal Institution and set out for along tour of the continent. His valet did not wish to go with him to the tour; therefore, he picked Faraday to go with him as his scientific assistant and act as his valet until he found a replacement in Paris. Throughout the trip, Davy was unable to get a replacement for his valet, hence, Faraday was forced to work both as an assistant and a valet (The Life and Discoveries of Michael Faraday 15). Davy’s wife, Ja ne, did not treat Faraday as an equal but rather treated him as a servant. This conduct of Jane angered Faraday to an extent that at some point he thought of returning to England alone and give up on science altogether (Thompson 28). However, although the trip made Faraday so miserable, it introduced him to prominent scientists, such as Ampere and Volta. Besides being a renowned scientist, Faraday was a devoted Christian of the Sandemanian denomination. After his marriage at the church, he confessed his faith to the congregation and thereafter served as a Deacon (Thompson 51). He also served as an elder in the meeting house of his youth for two years. Faraday was married to Sarah Barnard on 12 June, 1821; throughout there life they were not blessed with any child (The American journal of science and arts 146). Faraday’s work Faraday’s work was majorly in the field of chemistry and physics with his main contributions mainly in electrochemistry and electromagnetism. Chem istry The earliest works of Faraday in the field of chemistry began when he was still an assistant to Humphry Davy. In 1820, Faraday was mainly involved in the study of chlorine and discovered new compounds made from carbon and chlorine, C2Cl6 and C2Cl4 (Faraday 51). He also carried out the first rough experiments on the diffusion of gases and managed to liquefy several gases.