Michael Faraday rose from obscurity to become one of the greatest experimental scientists the world has ever known.

 

He was the towering genius of ‘The Electrical Age’. Albert Einstein kept his portrait on the wall for inspiration and described Faraday as the one who ‘made the greatest change in our conception of reality.’

 

Faraday was born on the wrong side of the tracks in 1791, a blacksmith’s son with no prospects, no money, no connections in a world that was dominated by class and status. Yet Dickens, Turner, Lord Byron’s daughter and Prince Albert were among his friends and admirers. His rise to fame is an extraordinary story of human love and determination against impossible odds. His great scientific mentor, Sir Humphry Davy, eventually turned against him and Michael Faraday’s brilliant achievements were forged through opposition, struggle and despair.

 

His experiments in electro-magnetic rotation produced the first electric motor and his discovery of alternating current let to the first dynamo. His extensive researches into electro-magnetism and Field Theory were among the greatest influences on Einstein. The modern era is unthinkable without him.

 

But Michael Faraday never owned his own home, he had no interest in fame, he turned down the Presidency of the Royal Society, he declined a knighthood and would not allow himself to be buried in Westminster Abbey. He hated the honours system and the celebrity obsession of British society.

 

He lived and died plain Michael Faraday, the blacksmith’s son, who combined profound science with profound faith and a brilliant experimental imagination with child-like simplicity.

 

Few men have genuinely ‘changed the world.’ Michael Faraday is one of them.

 

And his story is almost unknown…