THIS WEEK'S GREAT DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 225, 22 September 1928, Page 8

THIS WEEK'S GREAT DAY.

SEPT. 22.—BIRTH OF MICHAEL

FARADAY.

(Copyrighted.)

One hundred and thirty-seven years ago, on September 22, 1791, Michael Faraday, one of Britain's most illustrious chemists and physicists, was born at Newington Butts in South London, where his father, a native of Yorkshire, was then working as a blacksmith. His early education was very scanty, and at the age of twelve he was apprenticed to a bookbinder, in whose employ he had then been for a year as an errand boy. He eagerly read most of the books which passed through his hands, but he was especially interested in those of a scientific nature, and these he mastered so thoroughly that he was soon able to construct some simple apparatus and to make with it a large variety of interesting electrical experiments. When he was 21 he attended a course of lectures given by Sir Humphrey Davy at the Royal Institution, and of these he made elaborate notes, which he afterwards rewrote and illustrated with a number of his own drawings. Having provided his manuscript with a neat binding, he forwarded it to Davy as a specimen of his handiwork, and this led to his gaining the friendship of the great scientist, who shortly afterwards offered him the post of a laboratory assistant at the Royal Institution. Faraday gladly accepted the humble and poorly-paid position, which gave him his longdesired chance of securing a footing in the scientific world, and he soon made himself indispensable to Davy, whom he accompanied on a lengthy tour of the principal European scientific institutions a year later. On their return to England he assisted in the 'experiments, which resulted in the invention of Davy's famous safety lamp for miners, and he began to attempt discoveries on his own account. His promotion to the position of a director of the laboratory at the Royal Institution was followed by his election as a fellow of the Royal Society and the award of an honorary degree from Oxford University. Although Faraday's fame is mostly associated with electricity and magnetism, his labours were by no means confined to those two sciences, and the great extent and variety of his researches is evidenced by the numerous writings which he published on other subjects, as well as by his public lectures. His most famous and valuable discovery was that an electric current can be produced by magnetism, provided the magnet is revolving, and all the turbines and dynamos which are now in use throughout the world for the generation of electricity for lighting and power are based upon the principle first discovered by Faraday. The problem of producing an active electrical current from magnetism, which had baffled many great scientists, was only solved by Faraday after long and exhaustive experiments, and its solution marked an epoch in the annals of scientific discovery. Honours were showered upon him by learned and scientific societies at home and abroad, but he steadfastly refused to accept a knighthood or the presidency of the Royal Society. He continued his active association with the Royal Institution for a period of fifty-three years, and in 1865 he retired to Hampton Court, where a house on the Royal estate had been placed at his disposal by Queen Victoria. It was there that he passed away on August 25, 1867, at the age of seventysix.