Timeline of Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday, British Inventor
Timeline of Michael Faraday (1791-1867)
1791 - Michael Faraday was born on September 22, 1791.
1801 - In order to help his family, Michael Faraday started helping the family by working as an errand boy at the age of 13.
1802 - When Michael Faraday was 14, Ribeau offered him a free apprenticeship, and during the next seven years, Michael mastered the trade of bookbinding. Like many poor boys, Michael’s schooling was limited. During his work, he taught himself physics, chemistry, and a mysterious force, “electricity.”
“Michael Faraday was a mentor to Albert Einstein who had a picture of Faraday on his wall.”
1812 - In the spring of 1812, a customer at the bookbindery gave Michael Faraday tickets to see Davy’s upcoming lectures. Faraday compiled his notes from the lectures in a bound volume (the one benefit of his toil at the bookbinder's) and sent the book to Davy, requesting to become his assistant—an unheard-of notion for a tradesman with no university degree.
1812 - Michael Faraday applied to Davy for a job, citing his interest in science and showing Davy the extensive lecture notes he had taken. Davy hired Faraday to assist with his research and lecture demonstrations.
1820 - Michael Faraday began to do original research on his own, submitting two papers on chemistry to the Royal Society.
1820 - Michael Faraday invented the fridge, he liquefied ammonia and other gases by using high pressures and low temperatures. *In 1834, an American expatriate in Great Britain, Jacob Perkins, built the first working vapor-compression refrigeration system.*
Make it stand out
“Michael Faraday invents refrigeration”.
1821 – Michael Faraday married his longtime sweetheart Sarah Barnard, she being 21 and Faraday 30. She was disabled and spent much of her time in a Bath chair.
1821 – Michael Faraday invented the first electric motor in history. Michael Faraday accomplished this during an experiment where he created a device by placing a magnet in the bottom of a glass container that is a mercury field, a wire was hung overhead which he then connected to a battery. After an electric current was conducted through the wire, it started rotating around the magnet.
1823 – Michael Faraday discovered the liquefaction of chlorine.
1824 - Michael Faraday was elected to the Royal Society.
1824 – Michael Faraday invents the rubber balloon. Faraday’s balloons were made by pressing two sheets of rubber together. Those were used to contain hydrogen during his experiments.
“Michael Faraday invented the rubber balloon.”
1825 - Michael Faraday became Director of the Laboratory at the Royal Institution.
1825 – Michael Faraday discovered the liquefication of benzene.
1825 – Michael Faraday discovered the law of electrolysis. The laws state that (1) the amount of chemical change produced by current at an electrode-electrolyte boundary is proportional to the quantity of electricity used and (2) the amounts of chemical changes produced by the same quantity of electricity in different substances are proportional to their equivalent weights.
1831 - Michael Faraday discovered that a changing magnetic field can induce a current, he performed a series of experiments that showed clearly that the induced EMF is equal to the rate of change of magnetic flux. Generalizing from the patterns formed by iron filings around magnets, he invented the concepts of magnetic and electric field lines.
1831 – Michael Faraday invented the first electromagnetic generator, the Faraday disk. Generators provide nearly all the power for electrical grids. His first experiment included a simple ring of wires and cotton through which he passed a magnet. Through this, he found that a current was generated. Still today, most electricity is made using the same principles.
1831-1855 - Michael Faraday read before the Royal Society a series of 30 papers that were published in his three-volume ‘Experimental Researches in Electricity’. His bibliography lists nearly 500 printed papers, of which only three were jointly written papers.
1833 - Michael Faraday and William Whewell worked out a new nomenclature for electrochemical phenomena based on Greek words, which is more or less still in use today—ion, electrode, and so on.
1836 – Michael Faraday invents the Faraday Cage. A faraday cage is a grounded metal screen surrounding a piece of equipment to exclude electrostatic and electromagnetic influences. Faraday cages are used in microwave ovens to stop radiation from entering your body.
Michael Faraday invented the Faraday Cage (they are found in microwave ovens).
1839 – Michael Faraday suffered memory loss, experienced vertigo and some other neurological issues, though the cause was unknown.
1841 – Michael Faraday suffered from a nervous breakdown and did not return to his studies until 1844.
1844 - by the year 1844 Michael Faraday had been elected to about 70 scientific societies, but Faraday declined nomination as President of the Royal Society.
1848 - as a result of private representations by the Prince Consort, Michael Faraday was awarded a Grace and Favour house in Hampton Court, free of all expenses for upkeep. This house, the Master Mason's House, later called Faraday House, and now No.37 Hampton Court Road was occupied by Faraday for the next 19 years until his death on 25 August 1867.
1849 - In a private lecture given before Prince Albert in 1849 Faraday expounded the wonders of magnetism and the influence that it appeared to exert on every particle in the universe:
‘What its great purpose is, seems to be looming in the distance before us….and I cannot doubt that a glorious discovery in natural knowledge, and of the wisdom and power of God in the creation, is awaiting our age’.
1849 - On March 19, 1849, his diary records:
‘Gravity. Surely this force must be capable of an experimental relation to Electricity, Magnetism and the other forces, so as to bind it up with them in reciprocal action and equivalent effect. Consider for a moment how to set about touching this matter by facts and trial’.
1855 – Michael Faraday campaigned against pollution by writing a letter about the issue, asking the authorities to take action. He wrote,
“If we neglect this subject, we cannot expect to do so with impunity; nor ought to be surprised if, ere many years are over, a hot season give us sad proof for the folly of our carelessness.”
1858 - Michael Faraday retired with a small pension.
1867 – Michael Faraday passed away on August 25th, 1867. When he died Faraday was buried in Highgate cemetery. The house at Hampton Court was then renamed Faraday House, a tribute to his distinction.
Michael Faraday’s Tombstone located in Highgate Cemetary
1991 - To honor Faraday’s contribution to the advancement of British science, on June 5, 1991, the Bank of England unveiled a 20-euro bill with his portrait.
2001 - In February 2001, by the 20-euro bill with Michael Faradays portrait was withdrawn, the bank estimated that around 120 million Faraday bills were in circulation, it was more like 2 billion!
“Michael Faraday on the British 20-euro bill”.
