A GREAT DISCOVERY

Otago Witness, Issue 4028, 26 May 1931, Page 70

A GREAT DISCOVERY

By

P. Michael Faraday.

If any single discovery can be said to have revolutionized the world, it is probably that of Michael Faraday when he discovered the true relation between magnetism and electricity. In August, 1831, he showed that electrical currents could be induced. The centenary of the epoch-making discovery, which foreshadowed the dynamo and, indeed, all the amazing electrical developments of the twentieth century, is to be celebrated on an almost unprecedented scale. Sir William Bragg in a “ broadcast ” talk recently pictured the greatness of Faraday’s discoveries. “ How many and great these are we may realise if we think of the consequences of stopping ever}' electric current that is running at this moment, so that we bring to an end all electric distribution of light and power, all transmission of news by telegraph and telephone, and a hundred other uses of electricity on which we have learnt to rely. The very means by which I am addressing you to-night, the microphone that stands before me, the machine that transfers its vibrations to the ether, the receiver and the loud speaker which are beside you, are all constructed on principles first enunciated by Faraday. Very few men have changed the face of the world as Faraday has done.” ¥ ¥ ¥ But to me, and to many others, Faraday will be a great man not only because of his research in almost every branch of science, but also because he consistently refused to.turn his knowledge into money. Michael Faraday was born the son of poor parents, and he died comparatively poor. Yet his discoveries resulted in patents which must have brought hundreds of thousands of pounds to others. This attitude of the scientist was in complete keeping with his life. Service to his fellow-creatures came first. coupled with a love of Truth; early in his career he made up his mind that he would never sell a discovery or invention for exploitation, when he believed that it should be used freely by the whole world.

Tyndall has related how Faraday told him that at one stage of his career he had definitely to ask himself whether he would make money or science the object of his work. He chose science, yet after his epoch-making discoveries in 1831, many business men would have paid him thousands a year for his services. His reward was not the £lO,OOO a year he might have earned for the last thirty years of his life, but the glory of establishing England’s position as a scientific nation and the knowledge of the benefits he had given to civilization, regardless of creed or race.

For thirty years Faraday was advise’ - to Trinity House, and his remarks regarding his payment of £2OO indicates his attitude. “ I can at any moment convert my time into money,” he said, “ but I do not require more of the latter than is sufficient for necessary purposes. The sum, therefore, of £2OO is quite enough in itself.” It is not surprising that such a man won the love and affection of all who came into touch with him. His married life, in spite of his great interest in his work, was perfectly happy, and thirty years after his wedding he wrote to his wife in the most affectionate terms. One of his letters, written from Birmingham in 1848, might have been the love epistle of a young man recently engaged instead of a husband of twenty-seven years’ standing. Faraday probably paid his greatest compliment to his wife when he wrote, twenty-eight years after his marriage, that it was “an event whicn more than any other has contributed to my earthly happiness and healthful state of mind.” ' ¥ ¥ ¥

Faraday had no children, but his real love of boys and girls showed itself in his lectures to young people; and he found pleasure in the company of his nephews and nieces. Between my father and the great scientist there existed a real bond of affection; my father’s admiration of him was unbounded. 1 was brought up to regard him not only as one of the greatest scientists but also as one of the greatest of men; as long as my father lived he took us every Sunday to Faraday’s grave in Highgate. Cemetery. Notwithstanding the fame his discoveries brought him, Faraday remained intensely human, a man* who preserved a simple but beautiful faith. He worshipped at a Sandemanian Church and, curiously enough, his scientific discoveries have done much to show tlie truth of predictions made by Swedenborg in the eighteenth century. Swedenborg wrote of a vessel that would travel under water and throw projectiles at enemies, of heavier than air flying machines, and of communication over long distances without visible means. Faraday’s discovery of the principle of the "dynamo made the submarine, the aeroplane, and wireless possible. Faraday’s lectures to girls and boys were the first of their kind, and he realised the importance of explaining sciente in terms of everyday life to laymen. Charles Dickens, when editor of Household Words, was so impressed by his lectures on “ science at the breakfast table ” that he wrote to him asking for permission to use his notes in his paper. The short but interesting correspondence between these two men, the one who had

been a worker in a boot-blacking factory and who immortalised himself in literature, and tlie other who had been a bookbinder s apprentice and became the most famous scientist of his day, is still preserved.

The six lectures on “The Chemical History of the Candle” which Faraday gave during the Christmas holidays of 1860 were taken down by W. Crookes, afterwards Sir William Crookes, F.R.S., and it is interesting to read how they begin: “I claim the privilege of speaking to juveniles as a juvenile myself.” He remained a boy at heart throughout life, and would turn from chemicals and electricity to laugh at a Punch and Judy show, or to romp in the lecture theatre. Men of science have never been slow to speak about the immense value of Faraday s discoveries, and the centenary celebrations are to be on a big scale. It is only necessary to imagine the modern world deprived of electricity to realise the greatness of Faraday’s discoveries. I have a vivid memory of going to the Savoy Theatre when electric light was installed for the first time in anv place of entertainment. The lights created almost as much interest as the play—the name of which I have forgotten. [ can also remember as a boy watching the first fizzing and flaring carbon lamps and hearing people say, “ These are worse than the things we had before.” Faraday did not live to see the great fruits of his inventions. He hoped that we, his nieces and nephews, would follow in his steps as scientists, but we have disappointed him. The only thing we have done is to carry on his name, of which we are not unnaturally proud.—John o’ London’s Weekly.