PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 
THE MISSION AND SPIRIT OP THE PURE SCIENTIST. 
BY LOUIS BEGEMAN. 
Michael Faraday has been called the greatest experimental scientist of all 
ages. No one who has read the biography of this eminent man of science will be 
inclined to dispute such a statement. Faraday was interested in all phases 
of scientific thought but devoted his energies particularly to chemical and 
electrical research. It is no exaggeration to say that he created modern indus- 
trial electricity. His experimental researches covered a period, of forty-four 
years. The mere list of the titles of his papers fills several pages in the 
scientific catalog published by the Royal Society. 
Omitting any reference to his numerous achievements in chemical research, 
let us notice briefly some of his most important electrical discoveries. He was 
the first to demonstrate that a wire carrying a current of electricity, when prop- 
erly arranged, will revolve about the pole of a magnet and vice versa. He 
discovered the laws of current induction and stated them in exact language. 
The first of these, which states that a current can be induced by the relative 
motion of a coil and a magnet, is illustrated in the modern dynamo. Faraday 
constructed a number of small experimental dynamos producing continuous 
currents fully twenty years before the practical application of such a machine. 
For the purpose of demonstrating the second method of inducing a current 
by means of the making and breaking of a current in a primary surrounded 
by a secondary, he constructed for his purpose the first transformer; a device 
which is now so important an adjunct to alternating current installations. 
He explained clearly the phenomenon known as Arago’s rotations and thus 
presented the idea of the modern induction motor. 
He discovered the laws of electrolysis; the phenomena of diamagnetism, 
and the effect of the magnetic field on plane polarized light. 
These are some of his most important discoveries, any one of which would be 
sufficient to star a man in scientific research. Yet, when all is said, it is 
surprising to know that his greatest achievement was not the discovery of a 
definite physical law but rather the enunciation of one of the most fruitful 
theories of modern science. 
At the time of Faraday’s activity it was currently believed by men of science 
throughout the world that such forces as gravitation; magnetic and electrostatic 
attraction and repulsion, were exerted between bodies in a direct manner in- 
dependent of any medium that might exist in a continuous state between them. 
The idea of “action at a distance,” however, was abhorrent to Faraday, as 
it was also to Newton, who could not conceive of force apart from some 
medium. 
Faraday was the first to conceive clearly that the attraction and repulsion 
of magnetic poles and of electrostatic charges was due to some action going 
( 11 ) 
