In treating of the life-story of Michael Faraday I have let particulars as to his various experiments and discoveries interfere as little as possible with the continuity of the narrative, and have thought it advisable to slightly refer to them in a special chapter. The value of his contributions to our fund of scientific knowledge is made manifest by the fact that whatever book on electricity and allied subjects we may take up now--works even bringing the science down to the very latest date--we always find the name and experiments of Michael Faraday quoted with great respect as a leader and an unquestioned authority. Indeed, our debt to him for his electrical work is incalculable; we are now seeing the electric light carried day by day into more streets, lighting more public places, nay, even being used in illuminating private buildings. This light we owe, primarily, to Michael Faraday. Writing nearly a quarter of a century ago Professor Tyndall answers this question as to "What is the use of it all?" thus explicitly and unhesitatingly--"As far as electricity has been applied for medical purposes, it has been almost exclusively Faraday's electricity. You have noticed those lines of wire which cross the streets of London. It is Faraday's currents that speed from place to place through these wires. Approaching the point of Dungeness the mariner sees an unusually brilliant light, and from the noble _phares_ of La Hève the same light flashes across the sea. These are Faraday's sparks exalted by suitable machinery to sunlike splendour. At the present moment the Board of Trade and the Brethren of the Trinity House, as well as the Commissioners of Northern Lights, are contemplating the introduction of the Magneto-electric Light at numerous points upon our coasts; and future generations will be able to refer to those guiding stars in answer to the question, What has been the practical use of the labours of Faraday? But I would again emphatically say that his work needs no such justification; and that if he had allowed his vision to be disturbed by considerations regarding the practical use of his discoveries, those discoveries would never have been made by him."