Michael Faraday: The Bookbinder Who Electrified the World and Taught It to Think
A story of poverty, self-education, discovery, scientific courage and the public awakening of scientific thought
Sramana Scientist | Special Feature
Michael Faraday (1791–1867) occupies a remarkable place in the history of science. His experiments laid the foundations for the electric motor, generator, and transformer, and transformed our understanding of electricity, magnetism, and electrochemistry. He also discovered benzene, investigated the liquefaction of gases, demonstrated electromagnetic rotation, discovered diamagnetism and the magneto-optical effect, and developed the influential concept of lines of force. [1–4]
Yet Faraday's greatness cannot be measured only by the number of his discoveries. He also helped change the relationship between science and society. Through public lectures, demonstrations and his willingness to investigate extraordinary claims experimentally, he helped demonstrate that science was not merely a collection of facts possessed by experts. It was a way of asking questions about the world.
His life is therefore a story not only of scientific discovery, but of scientific temperament.
From a poor family to the laboratory
Faraday was born in London in 1791 into a modest family. His father, James Faraday, was a blacksmith, and Michael received only a basic formal education. [1,5] At about fourteen, he became an apprentice to the bookbinder and bookseller George Riebau.
The bookshop became his first university.
Faraday read the scientific books that passed through his hands, made notes, copied illustrations and educated himself. His curiosity gradually focused on chemistry and electricity. His circumstances were difficult, but he possessed something that proved more important than privilege: an extraordinary determination to learn. [1,5]
His opportunity came when he attended lectures by the celebrated chemist Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution. Faraday took detailed notes, bound them into a volume and sent them to Davy. In 1813, he joined the Royal Institution as a laboratory assistant. [1,5]
For a young man who had never attended university, this was a remarkable beginning.
When electricity became motion
In 1821, Faraday demonstrated electromagnetic rotation, producing continuous mechanical movement through the interaction of electricity and magnetism.[2] The experiment was an early foundation of the electric motor.
The implication was profound: electricity could produce motion.
Ten years later, Faraday discovered the reverse relationship. In 1831, through carefully controlled experiments involving magnets, coils and galvanometers, he demonstrated electromagnetic induction—the generation of an electric current through changing magnetic conditions.[3]
The apparatus looked modest. Its consequences were enormous.
Almost all large-scale electrical power generation today ultimately depends on electromagnetic induction. Whether the original energy comes from water, wind, nuclear fuel or fossil fuels, generators use electromagnetic principles derived from the work Faraday began in his laboratory.[3]
This illustrates one of the greatest powers of science: a discovery made in a small laboratory can eventually transform the daily lives of millions or billions of people.
Faraday did not design the modern electrical grid. He discovered a principle on which generations of engineers subsequently built.
Faraday the chemist
Faraday's achievements extended far beyond electricity.
In 1825, he isolated benzene, a previously unknown hydrocarbon found in the oily residue associated with illuminating gas. [1,4] Benzene later became one of the fundamental compounds of organic chemistry and the chemical industry.
His investigations into electrolysis produced important quantitative laws and helped establish terminology still used in science, including electrode, cathode, anode and ion. [1,4]
He also investigated gases, magnetism and the interaction of light and magnetism. His later work on diamagnetism and the magneto-optical effect expanded the boundaries of nineteenth-century physics. [1,2]
His productivity did not arise from chasing fame or trying to manufacture discoveries. Faraday repeatedly followed an observation wherever it led.
A strange effect demanded investigation.
A new substance demanded identification.
An unexpected movement demanded measurement.
Curiosity became an experiment; experiment became evidence; evidence became knowledge.
Changing the way scientists imagined nature
Faraday's work also changed scientific thinking at a deeper level.
He developed the idea of lines of force to represent electrical and magnetic effects in space. Instead of thinking of forces merely as invisible actions between distant objects, Faraday developed a physical picture of the space around magnets and electrical systems as having structure. [2,6]
James Clerk Maxwell later translated Faraday's experimental insights into mathematical form, making them central to the development of classical electromagnetic field theory.[6]
This was an extraordinary scientific partnership across different styles of thinking.
Faraday was not a mathematician in the conventional sense. He was an experimental investigator who could visualise physical relationships. Maxwell provided the mathematical language through which those relationships could be expressed more completely.
Faraday, therefore, did more than discover phenomena.
He helped change the way science imagined nature.
The scientist who took science to the public
Faraday's contribution to science communication was equally remarkable.
At the Royal Institution, he helped establish the Friday Evening Discourses in the 1820s, bringing new scientific developments before a wider audience. [1,7] He also became the central figure in the Royal Institution's Christmas Lectures, created to make science accessible and exciting to young people.[7]
Faraday delivered 19 series of Christmas Lectures, more than any other individual.[7] His famous The Chemical History of a Candle, first published in 1861, demonstrated how an ordinary candle could open the door to chemistry, physics, combustion and the workings of the natural world. [7,8]
This was more than popular entertainment.
Faraday believed people should see science being demonstrated.
A child did not have to understand advanced mathematics to observe an experiment, wonder about its result and ask why it happened.
This approach helped establish an important principle of public science: people develop scientific understanding not merely by receiving conclusions, but by seeing how evidence leads to conclusions.
The tradition Faraday helped create continues at the Royal Institution more than two centuries later.[7]
Faraday and the challenge of superstition
Perhaps the clearest example of Faraday's scientific temperament came from something seemingly far removed from electricity: table-turning.
Victorian Britain was fascinated by reports that tables moved mysteriously when people placed their hands upon them. The movement was attributed by some to electricity, magnetism, unknown forces and even supernatural agency.
Faraday did not simply mock the claim.
He investigated it experimentally.
He designed arrangements that helped determine how movement occurred and examined the influence of unconscious muscular action and expectation. He emphasized that the investigation should be approached in precisely the same way as any other physical investigation.[9]
The importance of this episode lies in the method.
Faraday's approach was not simply:
"I don't believe this."
It was:
"Let us test it."
That distinction is at the heart of scientific temperament.
Science does not require people to reject every extraordinary claim automatically. It requires that extraordinary claims be subjected to appropriate evidence.
Faraday thus provided the public with something more valuable than a verdict about table-turning. He provided an example of how to think when confronted with an extraordinary claim.
A scientist with humility
Faraday's private life remained comparatively modest despite his growing international reputation. He married Sarah Barnard in 1821, and his Christian faith remained an important part of his life.[5]
His scientific achievements brought numerous honours. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society and twice declined its Presidency.[1] His career remained closely tied to the Royal Institution, where he spent most of his working life.[1]
He died at Hampton Court in 1867.
The contrast between his beginning and his final position is striking. A boy from a poor family with limited schooling became one of history's most influential experimental scientists.
But perhaps the more important lesson is that his lack of formal education did not mean a lack of education. He educated himself continuously through reading, observation, experiment and communication.
Why scientists matter to human civilization
Faraday's life also raises a larger question: why are scientists so important to society?
Human history changes when people discover something that was previously unknown.
The discovery of electromagnetic induction was not simply another entry in a scientific textbook. It changed what human beings could do. It eventually became part of the technological foundation of electric power generation and transmission, influencing lighting, manufacturing, communications, transportation, medicine, computing and almost every aspect of modern life.[3]
The same pattern can be seen throughout scientific history.
A discovery can change the material conditions of life, but it can also change the human imagination.
Before a discovery, something may seem impossible.
After it, it may become ordinary.
The electric motor transformed the relationship between electricity and mechanical work. Electromagnetic induction transformed electricity generation. Modern chemistry transformed the availability of materials and medicines. Advances in medicine have transformed survival from diseases that were once considered inevitable.
This is one reason great scientists have an immense role in human life.
A discovery can change not only what people possess, but what they believe is possible.
Science alone does not automatically make society better; ethical judgment, institutions, responsible policy and human values determine how knowledge is used. But many of the extraordinary improvements in human capabilities and living conditions have been made possible by scientific discoveries and the technologies that followed.
Faraday's work is one of the clearest examples.
The Faraday lesson
Perhaps Faraday's greatest legacy is not a motor, a generator, a chemical compound or an equation.
It is a method of thinking.
Read. Observe. Question. Experiment. Record. Repeat. Test. Accept the evidence. Explain it to others.
He showed that a person does not have to begin life with wealth, status or elite education to contribute enormously to human knowledge.
He showed that great discoveries can emerge from simple questions pursued with extraordinary patience.
He showed that science should not be hidden behind authority. It should be demonstrated, questioned and shared.
And when confronted with superstition or extraordinary claims, he showed that ridicule is less powerful than experiment.
Michael Faraday, therefore, deserves to be remembered not simply as the scientist who discovered electromagnetic induction.
He was a scientist who helped electrify the world—and helped teach the world how to question it.
References
Royal Institution. Michael Faraday (1791–1867) [Internet]. London: Royal Institution; 2026 [cited 2026 Sep 30].
Royal Institution. Michael Faraday's research and work [Internet]. London: Royal Institution; 2026 [cited 2026 Sep 30].
Faraday M. Experimental researches in electricity. Philos Trans R Soc Lond. 1832;122:125-62.
Royal Institution. Michael Faraday's sample of benzene [Internet]. London: Royal Institution; 2026 [cited 2026 Sep 30].
James FAJL. Michael Faraday: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2010.
Royal Institution. Michael Faraday's magnetic laboratory [Internet]. London: Royal Institution; 2026 [cited 2026 Sep 30].
Royal Institution. History of the CHRISTMAS LECTURES [Internet]. London: Royal Institution; 2026 [cited 2026 Sep 30].
Faraday M. A course of six lectures on the chemical history of a candle. London: Griffin, Bohn and Company; 1861.
Faraday M. Experimental investigation of table-moving. J Franklin Inst. 1853;56(5):328-33. doi:10.1016/S0016-0032(38)92173-8.
Royal Society Picture Library. Portrait of Michael Faraday [Internet]. London: The Royal Society; 1857 [cited 2026 Sep 30].
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