Michael Faraday (the father of electrical engineering) 

By on

MichaelFaraday
Michael Faraday - the father
of electrical engineering
Famed English chemist and physicist Michael Faraday was born on September 22, 1791, in Newington Butts, a suburb of Surrey just south of the London Bridge. His family was not very well off and could only afford to give Faraday a basic education. When he was 14, Faraday was apprenticed to a bookbinder. Much of his learning came from reading the books he was binding.

At the age of 20, Faraday attended a series of lectures presented by English chemist Humphrey Davy. Faraday later wrote to Davy requesting a job as his assistant. He was turned down, but a year later Davy appointed him as a chemical assistant for the Royal Institution. Shortly after, Faraday was invited by Davy to accompany him on a European tour.

Upon his return, Faraday continued assisting with experiments at the Royal Institution. In 1821, he published his work on electromagnetic rotation, the theory that was used to create electric motors. In 1831, Faraday makes a significant discovery, the principle of electromagnetic induction. This principle was used to create the electric generator and transformer. This development was crucial in making electricity a practical and useful form of energy.

In the 1840s, Faraday's health began to deteriorate. He eventually died on August 25, 1867.

Faraday's contributions to science and his research on electricity made big leaps towards modern uses of energy and he is commonly regarded as the farther of electrical engineering. His name lives on as the "farad," a scientific term for a unit of electrical capacitance. A statue of Faraday stands in London, and there is a memorial of him placed near his birthplace of Newington Butts.

Faraday's life lived out, and continues to inspire one of his most famous quotes: "But still try, for who knows what is possible..."

Related Information



Steven McFadyen's avatar Steven McFadyen

Steven has over twenty five years experience working on some of the largest construction projects. He has a deep technical understanding of electrical engineering and is keen to share this knowledge. About the author

myElectrical Engineering

comments powered by Disqus

  1. tokks's avatar tokks says:
    11/14/2012 7:15 PM

    If he was born in 1971 how come he invented the elctro magnet in 1840

    • Steven's avatar Steven says:
      11/14/2012 7:38 PM

      It would have difficult for him. 1971 or 1791 - you can see how I did it. Thanks for pointing out the mistake tokks and I've corrected the date.


Comments are closed for this post:
  • have a question or need help, please use our Questions Section
  • spotted an error or have additional info that you think should be in this post, feel free to Contact Us



Understanding LV Circuit Breaker Fault Ratings

I think this post is going to be helpful to several of our readers. While the IEC low voltage circuit breaker Standard [IEC 60947-2, Low voltage switchgear...

Maxwell's Equations - Gauss's Electric Field Law

Gauss's Electrical law defines the relation between charge ("Positive" & "Negative") and electric field.  The law was initially formulated by Carl Friedrich...

Electrical Engineering

Electrical engineering is a field that covers a wide variety of sub-fields, including electricity and electronics. It is a field that goes back to the...

UPS Battery Sizing

Various techniques exist to enable the correct selection of batteries for UPS applications.  The procedure described below is one of the more common. ...

Sony Pocket eBook Reader

For the past few years I have reading eBooks on my HTC touch phone. On and off I have debated buying an eReader and recently purchased a Sony PRS-300 ...

Restricted Earth Fault Protection

The windings of many medium and small sized transformers are protected by restricted earth fault (REF) systems. The illustration shows the principal of...

Batteries

A battery consists of one or more cells, each of which use stored chemical energy to produce electrical energy, There are many types of cells and these...

3 Phase Loads

Three phase systems are derived from three separate windings, either connected in delta or star (wye). Each winding can be treated separately, leading...

Earth Electrode Resistance

Earthing of electrical systems is essential for the correct functioning and the protecting of life and equipment in the event of faults.  The earth electrode...

What does N+1 mean?

The term 'N+1' relates to redundancy and simply means that if you required 'N' items of equipment for something to work, you would have one additional...

Have some knowledge to share

If you have some expert knowledge or experience, why not consider sharing this with our community.  

By writing an electrical note, you will be educating our users and at the same time promoting your expertise within the engineering community.

To get started and understand our policy, you can read our How to Write an Electrical Note