Scientists & Mathematicians : Michael Faraday

In 1825, Michael Faraday, working in his workshop at the Royal Institution, discovered what he called bicarburet of hydrogen, now known as benzene. One hundred years later, his discovery was celebrated at the Royal Institution by a host of national and international delegates. Just over thirty years after Faraday's discovery, the industrial importance of benzene was realised with the establishment of the synthetic dyestuffs industry. In this paper, the Faraday Benzene Centenary Celebration is discussed in detail and compared with other celebrations that have linked benzene with colour, in particular the 1890 celebration in Germany of the benzene ring formula and the 1906 celebration of the foundation of the coal-tar dye industry. It is instructive to review the different economic and political agendas underlying these events, each within the context of a particular time and place.

The nineteenth-century chemist and natural philosopher Michael Faraday (1791--1867) is widely regarded as the father of British electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His main discoveries include electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism and electrolysis. It is rather remarkable - and no small feat – that the son of a blacksmith and a member of a religious dissenter group acquired a prominent position within the early nineteenth-century naturalist community in London. In addition to his many significant contributions to the physical sciences, he was an important figure during the first half of the nineteenth century at the Royal Institution in London, and a key scientific consultant for the British government. In Frank James' important six-volume collection, The Correspondence of Michael Faraday he beautifully illustrates the life and career of this eminent nineteenth-century figure. Each volume contains a short biographical vignette of Faraday's working life between 1811--1867. It is a rich resource for scholars not only interested in Faraday, but also in the context of nineteenth-century science generally. The six volume set provides a window into the almost weekly activities of Faraday, with information pertaining to his social circle, research activities, and personal and public opinions on matters connected to subjects ranging from natural philosophy and learned societies in London, to Christianity and British industry.

This article explores Michael Faraday’s “Historical Sketch of Electro‐Magnetism” as a fruitful source for understanding the epistemic significance of experimentation. In this work Faraday provides a catalog of the numerous experimental and theoretical developments in the early history of electromagnetism. He also describes methods that enable experimentalists to dissociate experimental results from the theoretical commitments generating their research. An analysis of the methods articulated in this sketch is instructive for confronting epistemological worries about the theory‐dependence of experimentation.

Adam-Hart Davis sits in Faraday's lab and discusses the importance of Faraday's inventions. Michael Faraday grew up during the Industrial Revolution, educating himself and attending lectures at the Royal Institution.

Meet three scientists who laid the foundations for electrochemistry. Robert Millikan measured the charge on the electron. Michael Faraday discovered the relationship between free energy and electrical potential. Walther Nernst formulated the relationship between redox potential and equilibrium constants. Their contributions paved the way for what came next.