(1791 - 1867)
Michael Faraday was born in 1791 in Newington, England.
At 14 he left school and started working. For eight years he was an apprentice in a bookbinder, benefiting from his boss's tolerance that allowed him to read the books he bound.
In 1810, he became a member of the City Philosophical Society, joining a group of young people discussing scientific topics.
In 1812, Humphry Davy giving a public presentation won the admiration of young Faraday. This one wrote him a letter eventually becoming his assistant a year later.
Faraday's contributions to physics and chemistry are probably the greatest experimental physicist of all time.
Faraday introduced the concepts of field and field lines and discovered electromagnetic induction and diamagnetism. Built the first current generator.
In the 1820s, following Davy's work, he developed electrolysis studies laying the foundations for electrochemistry, and in the following decade drew up the law of electromagnetic induction, also known as Faraday's Law. This is an important law, which is part of the set of equations known as Maxwell's equations.
It is also in the 1830s that he develops his studies on electric discharges in rarefied gases. In 1833 he assumed the post of professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution.
With an experimental apparatus similar to that used by Faraday, Röntgen discovered in 1895 X-rays.
Michael Faraday died in London in the year 1867.
