Michael Faraday was born on the 5th March 1791 in London, England. His father was a poor blacksmith. The family lived in a shanty. Though Michael was able to enter a public school in the city, he was compelled to leave it because he did not have enough money to buy proper clothing, socks and shoes to reach the standards of the school.
Though out of school, young Michael did not remain idle or frustrated. At the age of twelve he got a job in a bookshop that had a newspaper agency. Early every morning he walked along pavements in London selling newspapers. The owner of the shop who noticed admirable qualities of the paperboy gave him a job in the bookshop. This opened up a great road for the boy. While handling books, Michael started to select useful books and read them whenever he was free even for few minutes.
One day young Michael got the golden opportunity to attend a lecture by Sir Humphrey Davy a great inventor of the time. After listening to the lecture Michael made some notes on it and sent them to Sir Davy along with few diagrams and comments. On examining them Sir Davy was impressed very much. He immediately asked Michael to meet him. When Michael obliged, Sir Davy had a brief talk with him and offered him the post of a laboratory assistant in his research institute. Since the day he started to work there, his genius flourished. Michael who loved Chemistry from his childhood made numerous discoveries and inventions in the field. Stainless steel, liquid chlorine, optical glasses and benzene were among them.
Michael took his next step into the field of electricity. A European scientist had earlier discovered that electricity could produce magnetic effects. Michael started to think of its reverse action. “If electricity could produce magnetic effects, then there is the possibility for magnetism to produce electricity”, he reasoned.
Working on that line of thought, Michael invented the magneto electric machine that could produce electricity. It was a simple machine that had a disc between the poles of a magnet. Michael who developed the gadget step by step invented the dynamo at last.
Sir Humphrey Davy was so much proud of his capable and illustrious assistant, he nominated Michael Faraday to be his successor when he retired from the research institute in 1823.
On several occasions later, Faraday served as a Professor in few renowned Universities of Britain. Though he was born in a poor family in a city slum he was not much interested in making money or hoarding it for his own use only.
A large portion of the money he received was donated by him for the welfare of the poor, needy, and the under priviledged. He was well known as a compassionate generous great man who loved the mankind.
Michael Faraday passed away peacefully on the 24th April 1867 in his residence.
