Biography of Michael Faraday, Inventor of Electricity and the Dynamo

Senin, 27 Februari 2023

Michael Faraday Is a British scientist who was born in Newington Butts, England on September 22, 1791. Faraday was given the nickname as the Father of Electricity, this was because his business of electricity became a technology that was very useful. Faraday studied various fields of science, including electromagnetism and electrochemistry. He also invented the device that would become the Bunsen burner, which was used in nearly all science laboratories as a practical source of heat.

Michael Faraday's Childhood

Michael Faraday was born in Newington Butts, London, United Kingdom. The family moved to London in the winter of 1790. Faraday was the third of four children with little formal education. By the time he was 14, he was apprenticed as a salesman and bookbinder. Working as a salesperson and bookbinder gave him many opportunities to read many books and it was around this time that he developed his curiosity for science.

At age 20 he quit his apprenticeship and attended lectures given by Humphry Davy. It was from there that he later got in touch with Davy and eventually became Davy's assistant when the scientist experienced impaired vision due to nitrogen trichloride. Finally, he started his extraordinary life story.

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Faraday's invention of the dynamo

Faraday's first important discovery in the field of electricity occurred in 1821. Two years earlier, Oersted had discovered that the magnetic needle of an ordinary compass could be tilted when an electric current was carried in a wire that was not very far apart. This led Faraday to conclude that when the magnet is tightened, it is the wire that moves. Working on this conjecture, he managed to devise a well-defined scheme in which a wire would continuously rotate adjacent to a magnet as long as an electric current was applied to the wire. In fact, it was in this respect that Faraday had invented the first electric motor, that is, the first scheme for using an electric current to make something move.

This is a remarkable pacer. However, its practical utility was limited, as no other method of generating an electric current other than a simple chemical battery existed at the time. Faraday was convinced that there must be a way to use magnets to drive electricity, and he was constantly looking for ways to discover this method. Now, a stationary magnet does not affect the electric current adjacent to the wire. But in 1831, Faraday discovered that when a magnet is passed through a piece of wire, a current will flow in the wire and the magnet moves. This situation is called the electro-magnetic effect and this discovery is called Faraday's Law and is generally considered to be the most important and greatest of Faraday's discoveries.

Michael Faraday's Scientific Achievements - Chemical

Faraday began working in the field of chemistry while serving as an assistant to Humphry Davy. He managed to find chlorine and carbon substances. He also succeeded in liquefying several gases, investigating alloys of steel and manufacturing several new types of glass intended for optical purposes. Faraday was the first to invent the Bunsen Burner. Which is now widely used throughout the world.

Faraday worked extensively in chemistry. Faraday discovered another chemical, namely Benzene and liquefied chlorine gas. The liquefaction of chlorine gas aims to establish that the gas is a vapor of a liquid having a low boiling point and to provide a more certain basic concept of molecular assemblage. He has also determined the composition of the hydrated chlorine clathrate. Faraday is the inventor of the Law of Electrolysis and popularized the terms anode, cathode, electrode and ion. He was also the first to study metal nanoparticles.

Michael Faraday's Scientific Achievements - Electricity and Magnetism

Faraday became famous for his work on electricity and magnetism. His first experiment was to build a voltaic pile construction with 7 half-cent notes, stacked with 7 sheets of zinc and 6 sheets of salt water soaked paper. With this construction, he succeeded in decomposing magnesium sulfate.

In 1821, Hans Christian Ørsted published the phenomenon of electromagnetism. It was from here that Faraday then began research aimed at creating a device that could produce "electromagnetic rotation". One of the tools he succeeded in creating was the homopolar motor, in this tool a continuous circular motion was generated by the force of the magnetic circle around the cable which was extended into a pool of mercury where previously a magnet had been placed in the pool, so the cable would rotates around the magnet when an electric current is supplied from the battery. This discovery became the basis of today's electromagnetic technology.

Faraday made a breakthrough when he wound two separate coils of wire and found that current is passed through the first coil, while the second is subjected to current, or what is now known as mutual induction. The results of this experiment resulted in that "a change in the magnetic field can produce an electric field" which was then made a mathematical model by James Clerk Maxwell and is known as Faraday's Law.

Michael Faraday's Scientific Achievements - Diagmatism

In 1845 Faraday stated that most matter exhibits a weak resistance to an electric field. This event is called Diagmatism. Faraday also discovered that the plane of polarization of linearly polarized light could be rotated by the application of an external magnetic field in the direction of motion of the light. This is what is called the Faraday Effect.

In 1862, Faraday used a spectroscope to find differences in changes in light, changes of spectral lines by applying a magnetic field. However, the equipment he used at that time was inadequate, so it was not enough to determine the changes in the spectrum that occurred. This research was then continued by Peter Zeeman and he published his results in 1897 and received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1902 thanks to references from Faraday.

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Michael Faraday Dies

Faraday's achievements and discoveries in the fields of physics and chemistry earned him the respect of the British Empire. The proof, he was offered to be buried at Westminter Abay with other English kings and queens, but he refused and chose to be buried at Highgate Cemetery near his wife Sarah Barnard. Michael Faraday died on August 25, 1867 at Hampton Court, Middlesex, England.

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