Michael Faraday

About the Author

Michael Faraday (1791-1867) was one of the last great scientists to learn his trade through apprenticeship and self-teaching rather than formal higher education. Faraday was the first to deliberately produce an electrical current by manipulating a magnet, a process which underlies modern electrical generation. This was followed by a stream of discoveries extending over the next few decades, including the electro-optical effect and dimagnetism. Faraday’s work formed the experimental foundation of nineteenth-century field theory in physics.