He was a self-educated genius whose revolutionary discoveries in the fields of physics and chemistry have electrified the world of science and laid the foundations of Albert Einstein Relativity theory Almost a century later.
Now, the little -known notebooks of Victorian scientist Michael Faraday have been determined by the archives of the royal institution and must be digitized and made permanently online for the first time.
The notebooks include the handwritten notes of Faraday on a series of conferences given by the electrochemical pioneer Sir Humphry Davy To the Royal Institution in 1812. “None of these notebooks were examined or analyzed in depth,” said Charlotte New, heritage head of the Royal Institution. “They are little known to the public.”
Faraday, the son of a blacksmith, left school at 13 and worked as an apprentice bookbinder when he attended the conferences. He wrote very cautious notes and presented one of his notebooks in Davy, hoping for a job at the Royal institution Despite its workers’ history and rudimentary education.
The notebooks highlighted the functioning of Faraday’s mind and reveal that he made complex drawings to visualize the scientific experiences and principles he learned during the conferences. “He takes the time to make his own publication and to found what is taught in his own understanding,” said New. “He strongly illustrates his notes to understand the principle that was taught to him.” He even wrote an index for each notebook, she said, just for his own use and his personal research. “It is at a time when the paper is taxed. It shows how he really tries to understand science inside. »»
When Faraday gave Davy the notebook, he expressed his “desire to escape from trade, which I thought vicious and selfish, and enter the service of science”.
Although Davy initially refused to help him, the notebooks – and Faraday himself – seemed to make a good impression. Davy wrote to Faraday shortly after that he was “far from being unhappy with the proof that you gave me your confidence, which displays a great zeal, a power of memory and a attention”.
When a laboratory assistant from the institution entered a fight and was dismissed in February 1813, Davy remembers Faraday, 22, and offered him the position – which involved taking a salary reduction, but gave the young man access to the laboratory, free coal, candles and two attic rooms.
Faraday later gave an account of this job offer: “At the same time as he (Davy) satisfied my desires as for scientific employment, he advised me to remain a book, telling me that science was a hard mistress … badly rewarding those who devoted themselves to its service.”
Despite Davy’s advice, Faraday accepted work. It was a decision that would prove to be seminal for science. Over the next 55 years, while working for the Royal Institution, Faraday has discovered several fundamental laws of physics and chemistry – including its Electromagnetic induction law in 1831which illuminated the relative movement of the loaded particles.
It was thanks to the pioneering experiences of Faraday to the institution that he discovered electromagnetic rotation in 1821, a breakthrough which led to the development of the electric motor and benzene, a hydrocarbon derived from benzoic acid, in 1825. Current terms such as the electrode, the cathode and the ion. In 1845, after finding the first experimental evidence that a magnetic field could influence polarized light – a phenomenon which became known as the Faraday effect – it has proven that light and electromagnetism were interconnected.
Today, Faraday’s induction law is largely credited as allowing Einstein, which has kept a framed image of Faraday on its wall, to develop its theory of relativity.
Throughout his career, Faraday continued to draw her apparatus in his notebooks when he made these revolutionary discoveries. “This is something he starts here, with these illustrations, and continues,” said New.
An organized selection of key pages of laptops will be launched online for the first time on the Royal Institution website on March 24, to score 200 years since Faraday founded the annual Royal institution Christmas conferences.
Inspired by Davy’s talks to pursue a career in science, Faraday established these conferences in 1825 in the hope of encouraging others in the same way. “It was very strong to educate you, but also to educate everyone,” said New. “This principle remains fundamental for everything that the Royal Institution does today – we always hope to inspire the next generation of scientists from all backgrounds and horizons.”
Finally, each page of Faraday laptops will be scanned and made available online, she added.