Michael Faraday: Third Edition, with Portrait — John Shaqi
Michael Faraday: Third Edition, with PortraitGladstone, J. H. (John Hall)
Science
Michael Faraday: Third Edition, with Portrait
Gladstone, J. H. (John Hall)
Faraday, Michael, 1791-1867
This year and a half may be considered as the time of Faraday's
education; it was the period of his life that best corresponds with the
collegiate course of other men who have attained high distinction in
the world of thought. But his University was Europe; his professors the
master whom he served, and those illustrious men to whom the renown of
Davy introduced the travellers. It made him personally known, also, to
foreign _savants_, at a time when there was little intercourse between
Great Britain and the Continent; and thus he was associated with the
French Academy of Sciences while still young, his works found a welcome
all over Europe, and some of the best representatives of foreign
science became his most intimate friends.
In May 1815, his engagement at the Royal Institution was renewed, with
a somewhat higher position and increased salary, which was again raised
in the following year to 100_l._ per annum. The handwriting in the
Laboratory Note-book changes in September 1815, from the large running
letters of Brande to the small neat characters of Faraday, his first
entry having reference to an analysis of "Dutch turf ash," and then
soon occur investigations into the nature of substances bearing what
must have been to him the mysterious names of Paligenetic tincture, and
_Baphe eugenes chruson_. It is to be hoped that the constituents of
this golden dye agreed together better than the Greek words of its name.
We can imagine the young philosopher taking a deeper interest in the
researches on flame which his master was then carrying out, and in the
gradual perfection of the safety-lamp that was to bid defiance to the
explosive gases of the mine; this at least is certain, that Davy, in
the preface to his celebrated paper on the subject, expresses himself
"indebted to Mr. Michael Faraday for much able assistance," and that
the youthful investigator carefully preserved the manuscript given him
to copy.
Part of his duty, in fact, was to copy such papers; and as Sir Humphry
had a habit of destroying them, he begged leave to keep the originals,
and in that way collected two large volumes of precious manuscripts.
But there came a change. Hitherto he had been absorbing; now he was
to emit. The knowledge which had been a source of delight to himself
must now overflow as a blessing to others: and this in two ways. His
first lecture was given at the City Philosophical Society on January
17, 1816, and in the same year his first paper was published in
the _Quarterly Journal of Science_. The lecture was on the general
properties of matter; the paper was an analysis of some native caustic
lime from Tuscany. Neither was important in itself, but each resembled
those little streams which travellers are taken to look at because
they are the sources of mighty rivers, for Faraday became the prince
of experimental lecturers, and his long series of published researches
have won for him the highest niche in the temple of science.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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