4 ll. t. Ch. 11 ( had completed by 1826. With the exception of Chemical Manipulation, all of Fara- day's books had previously appeared in the periodical litera- ture or else were transcriptions of public lectures. Like many another text, it arose out of a course, this one given at the Royal Institution as William Jensen describes in his "Michael Fara- day and the Art and Science of Chemical Manipulation". Faraday had plans for a new edition of Chemical Manipulation and as a former bookbinder he prepared an interleaved copy that he annotated with new material. This copy is now the proud possession of Sydney Ross who describes his treasure in "The Chemical Manipulator". Ross is also the author of "Unpublished Letters of Faraday and Others to Edward Daniel Clarke", interesting examples of the minutiae, then as now, of scientific life. For chemists Faraday's crowning achievement was the enunciation of the law(s) of electrolysis, as described in John Stock's "The Pathway to the Laws of Electrolysis". The final paper, "From Electrochemical Equivalency to a Mole of Electrons: The Evolution of the Faraday" by Marcy Hamby Towns and Derek Davenport, was first presented at a Work- shop for Teachers held during the Great Lakes Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Indianapolis in late May. It is directed more at teachers of chemistry than at historians of chemistry but it may serve to illustrate a firmly held belief that history is too important to be left entirely to the Yn Mhl rd historians. Acknowledgements: Several years ago The Camille and than a 1000 occasions, and where Davy, Dewar, Young, Henry Dreyfus Foundation, Inc., was one of the principal Rayleigh, Rutherford, Arrhenius, Cannizarro, Mendeleev, donors when Faraday's basement laboratory at the Royal Hoffmann, Bridgman, Lawrence and William Bragg, and Institution was converted into the wonderfully elaborative Pauling have also stood, Wordsworth's reference to "the Faraday Museum. Their fealty to Faraday was again mani- spiritual presence of absent friends" comes to mind. fested with the award in 1990 of a special grant in the chemical No chemist (organic, physical, analytical, surface or elec- sciences that helped to underwrite this symposium and to make tro-), no physicist, no engineer or materials scientist is unaware possible the production of this bumper issue of the Bulletin. of Faraday's towering contributions to their subject. No Thanks are also due to the Petroleum Research Foundation of experimentalist has ever bequeathed to posterity a greater body the American Chemical Society for providing travel support of pure scientific achievement than Faraday and the practical for two of our visitors from England. consequences of his discoveries have profoundly influenced the very nature of civilized life. Yet he was self-taught: he left Derek A. Davenport, Purdue University school at the age of 12, and started his career as an errand boy, then as a bookbinder. He rose to be one of the greatest scientists of the age. At the same time, he remained morally incorruptible THE ROYAL INSTITUTION & MICHAEL and throughout his life retained his boyish sense of awe and FARADAY: A PERSONAL VIEW humility. In reading his work, just as in contemplating his astonishing range of accomplishments, we are conscious of the John Meurig Thomas, Royal Institution of Great Britain presence of a unique human being (2: Having lived and worked for five years in Michael Faraday's thn t ndrfl t b tr, f t b ntnt th th l home and laboratory, my initial interest in, andcuriosity about, f ntr nd, n h thn th, xprnt th bt tt f the great scientist has developed into a passionate admiration h ntn. for all that he stood for and achieved (1). His scientific and spiritual presence at the Royal Institution confers a unique aura In none of his 450 publications is there a single differential that pervades the whole place. One cannot escape it. When- equation, for he knew no mathematics. But, according to ever I stand at the lecturer's desk, where Faraday stood on more Albert Einstein, Faraday was responsible, along with Clerk Bull. Hist. Chem. 1 1 (1 99 1) 5 Maxwell, for the greatest change in the theoretical basis of bl I. rd prnpl ntrbtn t hl n. physics since Newton. The story of Faraday's life speaks to us across the years, and its romance bears repetition to every generation. Who was this 86 (Wth v Evltn f nr ft lp. man? What were his precise contributions? And why is it that 8824 rprtn nd prprt f ll tl (td f Indn no name stands higher in the general esteem of scientists the Wtz. Mtllrph. world over than that of Faraday? In the definitive biography of 820 Anltl htr. trntn f prt nd Faraday by L. Pearce Williams these questionsand others are ptn f l, ntv l, tr, npdr, rt, answered in great detail (3). In a more recent, less comprehen- drd fh, vr , ld nd ld. sive analysis, I have endeavoured to weave the genius of 82026 Orn htr. vr f bnzn, btn, Faraday the man with that of the place where he lived for nearly ttrhlrthn, hxhlrbnzn, r f 50 years and where he worked for a somewhat longer period - ln nd f nd [ npthlnlphn d, the Royal Institution (4). Fresh light on the private, public and vlnztn f rbbr. hthl prprtn. religious life, as well as the scientific work, of Faraday contin- 82 Iprvnt n th prdtn f ptl rd l. ues to be shed (5, 6). These complement a number of classic, 828z ftn f (2S, SO2 nd x thr . earlier studies, dating from the fascinating and elegant survey 84 nzd xtn f rtl tprtr nd of Faraday as a Discoverer (7) by his contemporary and suc- tblhd rlt f ntnt f tt. cessor, John Tyndall, and the Life and Letters of Michael 86 Eltrhtr nd th ltrl prprt f ttr. Faraday (8) by his friend, the eminent contemporary physi- f ltrl. Evln f vlt, tt, cian, H. Bence Jones, who was Secretary of the Royal Institu- thrl nd nl ltrt. rt xpl f thrtr tion from 1860 to 1873. tn. d lt ltrlt, prn ndtr. It is convenient to enumerate Faraday's contributions under 84 trn tl. nn nd nhbtn f two somewhat arbitrary headings: chemistry on the one hand, rf rtn. Sltv drptn. Wttblt f and electricity and magnetism on the other (see Tables 1 and 2). ld. These enumerations reflect the vast extent of Faraday's canvas 8 "l" htr nd th nt prprt f and cogently exemplify the interdisciplinary nature of his ttr. Mntpt. rd fft. nt. pursuits. Little wonder that the Faraday Society (now the rnt. Antrp. Faraday Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry) was set 8 Clldl tl. Sttrn f lht. Sl nd hdrl. up to explore the territory between well-established divisions of natural philosophy. No one has more brilliantly investigated the interfacial regions separating existing disciplines than did Michael Faraday. in Faraday's day, he would have won at least six! The citations Vast as the subject matter encompassed by Tables 1 and 2 could well have been for the: is, it is somewhat paradoxical that the enumerations therein * Discovery of electromagnetic induction which, along tend to conceal the really major breakthroughs that Faraday with his earlier related work on the relationship between made. It has often been said that, had there been Nobel prizes electricity and magnetism, brought forth the first transformer, dynamo and electric motor. * Laws of electrolysis, which rank among the most accu- rate generalizations in science. (These led, through the subse- quent work ofJohnstone Stoney, Helmholtz and J. J. Thomson, to the realization that matter is electrical in nature. They also led to the idea of ions, electrodes, electrolytes - all terms that Faraday, along with his polymathic Cambridge friend, Whew- ell, coined - and to electrodeposition, electroplating, coulom- etry and electrochemical analysis). * Discovery of the magnetic properties of matter and the foundation of magnetochemistry (the terms paramagnetism and diamagnetism; paramagnetism of oxygen gas). * Discovery of benzene and his analysis of its composi- tion. (Faraday was as much the founder of the chemical - certainly the dyestuffs and explosives - industry as of the electrical power generation and electroplating industries. Table b b tr hr rd rd n pprnt. 3 summarizes the set of compounds intimately associated with 6 ll. t. Ch. ( Faraday's work as an organic chemist). bl 2, rd prnpl ntrbtn t phl n. * Discovery of the Faraday effect (the rotation of the plane of polarization of light by a magnetic field) and for laying the foundations of magneto-optics. 82 Eltrnt rttn, * Introduction of the notion of a field. (Unlike his con- 8 Eltrnt ndtn. At vbrtn, temporary scientists, Faraday refused to be guided solely by 82 Idntt f ltrt fr vr r. the mathematical precision of Coulomb's law in interpreting 8 Eltrlt dptn. the forces between charges, He reflected deeply upon what 8 hr f ltrt thrh vtd , occurred in the intervening space. This led him, in turn, to (l ph nd htr, discover induction, inductive capacity and permittivity. He 86 Eltrtt. rd , 84 ltnhp btn lht, ltrt nd nt dnt prnt, 846 "hht n r vbrtn", 84 Grvt nd ltrt, 8 nd nt. 862 Infln f nt fld n th ptrl ln f d. n f fr nd th npt f fld, h nr f nt l td t prtr. h ntn tht lht, nt nd ltrt r ntrnntd, tion, Chemists are also unaware of the role that Faraday played in laying the foundation of the technology of the modern world, To his numerous gifts as an experimentalist and theorist.