| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"David Polewka" |
| Date: |
08 Apr 2006 06:28:04 PM |
| Object: |
Faraday, theist. |
http://www.nndb.com/people/571/000024499/
Michael Faraday
English chemist and physicist, born at Newington, Surrey,
on the 22nd of September 1791. His parents had migrated
from Yorkshire to London, where his father worked as a
blacksmith. Faraday himself became apprenticed to a
bookbinder. The letters written to his friend Benjamin
Abbott at this time give a lucid account of his aims in life,
and of his methods of self-culture, when his mind was
beginning to turn to the experimental study of nature. In
1812 Mr. Dance, a customer of his master, took him to
hear four lectures by Sir Humphry Davy. Faraday took
notes of these lectures, and afterwards wrote them out
in a fuller form. Under the encouragement of Mr. Dance,
he wrote to Davy, enclosing these notes. "The reply was
immediate, kind and favorable." He continued to work as
a journeyman bookbinder until the 1st of March 1813, when
he was appointed assistant in the laboratory of the Royal
Institution of Great Britain on the recommenalation of Davy,
whom he accompanied on a tour through France, Italy and
Switzerland from October 1813 to April 1815. He was
appointed director of the laboratory in 1825; and in 1833
he was appointed Fullerian professor of chemistry in the
institution for life, without the obligation to deliver lectures.
He thus remained in the institution for fifty-four years.
He died at Hampton Court on the 25th of August 1867.
Faradays earliest chemical work was in the paths opened
by Davy, to whom he acted as assistant. He made a special
study of chlorine, and discovered two new chlorides of carbon.
He also made the first rough experiments on the diffusion of
gases, a phenomenon first pointed out by John Dalton, the
physical importance of which was more fully brought to light
by Thomas Graham and Joseph Loschmidt. He succeeded
in liquefying several gases; he investigated the alloys of steel,
and produced several new kinds of glass intended for optical
purposes. A specimen of one of these heavy glasses after-
wards became historically important as the substance in which
Faraday detected the rotation of the plane of polarization of
light when the glass was placed in the magnetic field, and also
as the substance which was first repelled by the poles of the
magnet. He also endeavored with some success to make the
general methods of chemistry, as distinguished from its results,
the subject of special study and of popular exposition.
But Faraday's chemical work, however important in itself, was
soon completely overshadowed by his electrical discoveries.
The first experiment which he has recorded was the construction
of a voltaic pile with seven halfpence, seven disks of sheet zinc,
and six pieces of paper moistened with salt water. With this pile
he decomposed sulphate of magnesia (first letter to Abbott,
July 12, 1812). Henceforward, whatever other subjects might
from time to time claim his attention, it was from among
electrical phenomena that he selected those problems to which
he applied the full force of his mind, and which he kept
persistently in view, even when year after year his attempts to
solve them had been baffled.
His first notable discovery was the production of the continuous
rotation of magnets and of wires conducting the electric current
around each other. The consequences deducible from the
great discovery of Hans Christian Oersted (21st July 1820)
were still in 1821 apprehended in a somewhat confused manner
even by the foremost then of science. William Hyde Wollaston
indeed had formed the expectation that he could make the
conducting wire rotate on its own axis, and in April 1821 he
came with Humphry Davy to the laboratory of the Royal
Institution to make an experiment. Faraday was not there at the
time, but coming in afterwards he heard the conversation on the
expected rotation of the wire.
[=2E..]
We may remark, however, that although the fact of the tangential
force between an electric current and a magnetic pole was
clearly stated by Oersted, and clearly apprehended by Andr=E9-
Marie Amp=E8re, Wollaston and others, the realization of the
continuous rotation of the wire and the magnet around each
other was a scientific puzzle requiring no mean ingenuity for
its original solution. For on the one hand the electric current
always forms a closed circuit, and on the other the two poles
of the magnet have equal but opposite properties, and are
inseparably connected, so that whatever tendency there is for
one pole to circulate around the current in one direction is
opposed by the equal tendency of the other pole to go around
the other way, and thus the one pole can neither drag the other
round and round the wire nor yet leave it behind. The thing
cannot be done unless we adopt in some form Faraday's
ingenious solution, by causing the current, in some part of its
course, to divide into two channels, one on each side of the
magnet, in such a way that during the revolution of the magnet
the current is transferred from the channel in front of the
magnet to the channel behind it, so that the middle of the
magnet can pass across the current without stopping it, just
as Cyrus caused his army to pass dryshod over the Gyndes
by diverting the river into a channel cut for it in his rear.
We must now go on to the crowning discovery of the induction
of electric currents. In December 1824 he had attempted to
obtain an electric current by means of a magnet, and on three
occasions he had made elaborate but unsuccessful attempts
to produce a current in one wire by means of a current in
another wire or by a magnet. He still persevered, and on the
29th of August 1831 he obtained the first evidence that an
electric current can induce another in a different circuit. On
the 23rd of September he writes to his friend R. Phillips: "I
am busy just now again on electromagnetism, and think I
have got hold of a good thing, but can't say. It may be a weed
instead of a fish that, after all my labor, I may at last pull up."
This was his first successful experiment. In nine more days
of experimenting he had arrived at the results described in
his first series of "Experimental Researches" read to the
Royal Society on the 24th of November 1841. By the intense
application of his mind he had thus brought the new idea, in
less than three months from its first development, to a state
of perfect maturity.
[=2E..]
The first period of Faraday's electrical discoveries lasted ten
years. In 1841 he found that he required rest, and it was not
until 1845 that he entered on his second great period of
research, in which he discovered the effect of magnetism on
polarized light, and the phenomena of diamagnetism.
Faraday had for a long time kept in view the possibility of
using a ray of polarized light as a means of investigating the
condition of transparent bodies when acted on by electric
and magnetic forces.
[=2E..]
At last, in 1845, Faraday attacked the old problem, but this
time with complete success. Before we describe this result
we may mention that in 1862 he made the relation between
magnetism and light the subject of his very last experimental
work. He endeavored, but in vain, to detect any change in the
lines of the spectrum of a flame when the flame was acted on
by a powerful magnet.
This long series of researches is an instance of his persistence.
His energy is shown in the way in which he followed up his
discovery in the single instance in which he was successful.
The first evidence which he obtained of the rotation of the
plane of polarization of light under the action of magnetism
was on the 13th of September 1845, the transparent substance
being his own heavy glass. He began to work on the 30th of
August 1845 on polarized light passing through electrolytes.
After three days he worked with common electricity, trying glass,
heavy optical glass, quartz, Iceland spar, all without effect, as on
former trials. On the 13th of September he worked with lines of
magnetic force. Air, flint, glass, rock-crystal, calcareous spar
were examined, but without effect.
Heavy glass was experimented with. It gave no effects when
the same magnetic poles or the contrary poles were on
opposite sides (as respects the course of the polarized ray),
nor when the same poles were on the same side either with the
constant or intermitting current. But when contrary magnetic
poles were on the same side there was an effect produced on
the polarized ray, and thus magnetic force and light were
proved to have relations to each other. This fact will most likely
prove exceedingly fertile, and of great value in the investigation
of the conditions of natural force.
[=2E..]
But his work for the year was not yet over. On the 3rd of
November a new horseshoe magnet came home, and Faraday
immediately began to experiment on the action in the polarized
ray through gases, but with no effect. The following day he
repeated an experiment which had given no result on the 6th of
October. A bar of heavy glass was suspended by silk between
the poles of the new magnet. "When it was arranged, and had
come to rest, I found I could affect it by the magnetic forces and
give it position." By the 6th of December he had sent in to the
Royal Society the twentieth, and on the 24th of December the
twenty-first, series of his "Researches", in which the properties
of diamagnetic bodies are fully described. Thus these two great
discoveries were elaborated, like his earlier one, in about three
months.
The discovery of the magnetic rotation of the plane of polarized
light, though it did not lead to such important practical
applications as some of Faraday's earlier discoveries, has
been of the highest value to science, as furnishing complete
dynamical evidence that wherever magnetic force exists there
is matter, small portions of which are rotating about axes parallel
to the direction of that force.
We have given a few examples of the concentration of his efforts
in seeking to identify the apparently different forces of nature, of
his far-sightedness in selecting subjects for investigation, of his
persistence in the pursuit of what he set before him, of his energy
in working out the results of his discoveries, and of the accuracy
and completeness with which he made his final statement of the
laws of the phenomenon.
These characteristics of his scientific spirit lie on the surface of
his work, and are manifest to all who read his writings. But there
was another side of his character, to the cultivation of which he
paid at least as much attention, and which was reserved for his
friends, his family and his church. His letters and his conversation
were always full of whatever could awaken a healthy interest, and
free from anything that might rouse ill feeling. When, on rare
occasions, he was forced out of the region of science into that of
controversy, he stated the facts and let them make their own way.
He was entirely free from pride and undue self-assertion. During
the growth of his powers he always thankfully accepted a
correction, and made use of every expedient, however humble,
which would make his work more effective in every detail. When
at length he found his memory failing and his mental powers
declining, he gave up, without ostentation or complaint, whatever
parts of his work he could no longer carry on according to his
own standard of efficiency. When he was no longer able to apply
his mind to science, he remained content and happy in the
exercise of those kindly feelings and warm affections which he
had cultivated no less carefully than his scientific powers.
The parents of Faraday belonged to the very small and isolated
Christian sect which is commonly called after Robert Sandeman.
Faraday himself attended the meetings from childhood; at the
age of thirty he made public profession of his faith, and during
two different periods he discharged the office of elder. His
opinion with respect to the relation between his science and his
religion is expressed in a lecture on mental education delivered
in 1854, and printed at the end of his Researches in Chemistry
and Physics.
Before entering upon the subject, I must make one distinction
which, however it may appear to others, is to me of the utmost
importance. High as man is placed above the creatures around
him, there is a higher and far more exalted position within his
view; and the ways are infinite in which he occupies his thoughts
about the fears, or hopes, or expectations of a future life. I believe
that the truth of that future cannot be brought to his knowledge by
any exertion of his mental powers, however exalted they may be;
that it is made known to him by other teaching than his own, and
is received through simple belief of the testimony given. Let no
one suppose for an instant that the self-education I am about to
commend, in respect of the things of this life, extends to any
considerations of the hope set before us, as if man by reasoning
could find out God. It would be improper here to enter upon this
subject further than to claim an absolute distinction between
religious and ordinary belief. I shall he reproached with the
weakness of refusing to apply those mental operations which
I think good in respect of high things to the very highest. I am
content to bear the reproach. Yet even in earthly matters I believe
that 'the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even
His eternal power and Godhead'; and I have never seen anything
incompatible between those things of man which can be known
by the spirit of man which is within him and those higher things
concerning his future, which he cannot know by that spirit.
Published Works. Chemical Manipulation, being Instructions to
Students in Chemistry (1st ed. 1827, 2nd 1830, 3rd 1842);
Experimental Researches in Electricity, (3 vols., 1844-55);
Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics (1859);
Lectures on the Chemical History of a Candle (1861);
On the Various Forces in Nature (no date).
Father: James Faraday (blacksmith)
Mother: Margaret Hastwell
Wife: Sarah Barnard (m. 12-Jun-1821)
American Philosophical Society 1840
Copley Medal 1832
Royal Medal 1835
Copley Medal 1838
Rumford Medal 1846
Royal Medal 1846
Units of Measure ca
..
..
--
.
|
|
| User: "" |
|
| Title: Re: Faraday, theist. |
08 Apr 2006 10:09:42 PM |
|
|
Quite interesting - I have also read this about Michael Faraday:
When asked what use there was for all his magnets, wires, etc., he
responded, "What good is a newborn baby?"
When speaking with a politician, "One day, you'll be able to tax it"
A
.
|
|
|
| User: "%" |
|
| Title: Re: Faraday, theist. |
08 Apr 2006 10:15:34 PM |
|
|
hi
<3akmx4002@sneakemail.com> wrote in message
news:1144552182.346238.225880@i39g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
Quite interesting - I have also read this about Michael Faraday:
When asked what use there was for all his magnets, wires, etc., he
responded, "What good is a newborn baby?"
When speaking with a politician, "One day, you'll be able to tax it"
A
.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Related Articles |
|
|
