Faraday …

• Michael Faraday (1791 - 1867) grew up in a very poor household.
• He had difficulty pronouncing r's when he was a child and was therefore treated very poorly by his teacher.
• His parents let him stay out of school and work for a book binder.
• He started going to science lectures by Sir Humphrey Davy - bound a book of notes he took - and presented it to Davy.
• Since Davy was the head of the Royal Institution, he offered Faraday a job washing test tubes and doing lab work.
• Eventually Faraday took over Davy's job and made perhaps the most influential experimental discoveries in all of history.
• He made some of the first electromagnetic: motors, generators, and transformers.
• He also made discoveries with chemistry.
• Faraday was extremely modest, religious, and honest. He once turned down an invitation from the Queen so that he could go to church.
• He gave science lectures to the general public that were popular among common people, including children. A book of these lectures, The Chemical History of a Candle became one of the most popular books in history.
• Faraday may have been the best experimentalist in history.