222 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



Society ; where I have been frequently brought into contact with the chiefs of 

 science, of literature, aiul of art ; where Faraday became my pupil, my col- 

 league, and my friend." 



]\Ir. Brando was named honorary professor, and the chair of chemistry wag 

 given, in 1SG3, to Mr. Edward Frankland. 



XIV. — Mr. faeadat. — his outset in life. — his eeseajiches akd 



LECTURES. 



Mr. Faraday (Michael) was born in 1794, at Nowington. Ilis father, who 

 was a farrier in narrow circumstances, early apprenticed him to a book-binder of 

 London. At spare moments, the young Michael occupied himself with the con- 

 struction of the instruments of physics ; he even succeeded in making an electrical 

 machine. It occurred one day to his master to show these objects to a customer 

 of his, Mr. Dance ; and the latter was so much pleased with them that he pro- 

 curetl for this apprentice, at once book-ljinder and physicist, permission to attend 

 the four last lectures of Davy at the Royal Institution, of which Mr. Dance 

 himself was one of the earlier members. Faraday, seated in the gallery, heard 

 with attention and took notes; so that he was able to write out the lectures and 

 send them to Davy, with a brief and modest mention of liimself and a request 

 to be employed in the operations of the laboratory of the Institution. Davy 

 was struck with the perspicuity and accuracy of the memoir, and, having satis- 

 fied himself of the talents and industry of the author, offered him, at the begin- 

 ning of 1813, the place of assistant, which had become vacant at the Institution. 

 Faraday promptly accepted it, and, at the close of the year, accompanied Davy 

 to the continent in the capacity of confidential secretary. On his return to 

 London, in 1815, he resumed his functions at the Royal Institution, of which he 

 was named director in 1825, and two years afterwards became one of the pro- 

 fessors in ordinary. 



The scientific researches of Mr. Faraday date from 1820. They have been 

 conducted, like those of Davy, in the laboratory of the Institution, at the cost 

 of the establishment, and without any assistance on the part of the state. He 

 has himself indicated their principal object in a few lines : 



'' I had early conceived the opinion, I may even sa}' the conviction, that the differ- 

 ent forms under which the forces of matter manifest themselves have a common 

 origin ; or, in other words, have so direct a relation towards and dependence 

 upon one another, that they are in some sort convertible among themselves and 

 possess equivalents of power in their action." 



His eflfbrts have, therefore, been directed towards the reciprocal relations of 

 heat, light, magnetism, and electricity ; and he has succeeded in demonstrating 

 that, to a certain point, the imponderable bodies, as they were heretofore called, 

 are so many different manifestations of one and the same force. To speak here 

 only of light, it may be mentioned that, after several abortive trials which failed 

 to shake a conviction founded on philosophic considerations, he has succeeded 

 in magnetizing and electrifying a ray of light, and in illuminating a magnetic 

 line of force. 



Nor are these the sole researches of Mr. Faradaj^, though to them his name 

 has become more especially attached. 



" The memoirs which he has published on other subjects,* and his public 

 lectures, evince the extent of his inquiries. His rare merit as a professor is 

 attested by the thousands of persons who flock every year to hear him. Pos- 

 terity will applaud the ardor with which he has always embraced philosophic 

 truths, without allowing any unworthy jealousy, as so often happens, to distort 



• Mr. Faraday has succeeded in liquefying and even solidifying several gases regarded as 

 permanent ; among others, carbonic acid. 



