Thousands of power stations all over the world are now producing electricity with the help of generators. Without these generators electric power would have been a dream for us.

            It is difficult to manage our day to day life without electricity. The credit of inventing generator goes to to Michael Faraday. At that time he did not realize that his invention would turn out to be one of the most important boons of the modern age.

            Michael Faraday, the father of electricity was born in 1791 at Newington, England. He was the son of a blacksmith. His mother was a country woman. Faraday had three other siblings and all of them could barely be fed as their father was ill and often incapable of doing any work. Michael had to make do with the available education of alphabets and arithmetic from the Church Sunday School.

            In his childhood, seeing his poor condition, one kind-hearted distributor of books, gave him the job of distributing newspapers. At the age of 13, he employed him  at his shop and taught him book-binding works. Thus instead of going to school Faraday worked to earn his livelihood in  his early years.But Faraday had great interest in study. Hence, finding time out of his working hours, he started reading books available there. He came across an exhaustive write-up on electricity in the third edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica which opened new vistas for him. This reading brought a great transformation in his life.

            As his interest in science increased, he attended lectures in the philosophical society there.  His interest touched the sky  after he attended some lectures of the famous chemist  of that time Sir Humphry Davy in 1812 at the Royal Institution in London. This was the turning point in his life. He was so inspired by the lectures, he copiously took down the notes and prepared a bound volume by hand. He sent it to Sir Humphry Davy with a request letter for a job. In 1813 he began to work as Davy’s laboratory  assistant at the Royal Institution. Finally, in1815, he was promoted as assistant and was given the charge of looking after the laboratory instruments.

            Davy  left Royal Institution, but Faraday carried out many experiments for him. It is said that Faraday was Davy’s greatest discovery. In 1825, Faraday was promoted as the director of the laboratory.  He made invaluable contribution in the invention of the famous ‘Safety Lamp’ of Davy. In the same year he  discovered benzene. In 1827, Faraday was invited to join as professor of Chemistry at the London University college. But he turned the offer down.

             Earlier in 1820 Hans Oersted discovered that when electric current passes through a conductor, it produces magnetic field. Faraday thought that it would also work the other way round that is, magnetic field can generate electricity. He invented that if a magnet is moved inside  a wire loop, electricity is generated. These experiments made him famous throughout Europe. In 1831, he made the first dynamo.

            In 1833, Faraday was selected for the Fullerian Professorship of Chemistry at the Royal Institute. But he denied that inorder to devote more time to his research works and served as part time lecturer at the Royal Military Academy. In the meantime he was offered the Presidency of the Royal Society which he did not accept expressing his inability. He even refused the proposed Knighthood  award of the title ‘Sir’ from the government. In 1835, Lord Melbourne , the Prime Minister of England successed in seeking his pardon for granting him government aid and pension.   

            Once Faraday was presenting an experiment to demonstrate before many people who came from different places. Among the audience, there was a lady with his young baby.  Faraday took a coil of copper wire and connected its ends to a galvanometer. He inserted a bar magnet into the coil. The needle of the galvanometer moved indicating generation of electricity. When the demonstration was over, the lady shouted loudly “ Is it an experiment? Have you invited people to befool them?” Faraday polittely replied, “Madam, just like your child, my experiment is a baby. In future, it may be of utmost importance”.

            Faraday’s statements have now come true. All electric generators and transformers work on the principle of electro-magnetic induction. In the next few years Faraday demonstrated by passing currents through solution his laws of electrolyris in 1834.

                 In 1939 Faraday suffered a mental break- down. His illness left him with a poor memory which grew worse  with time. With this difficulty he could return to his work and started investigating the effect of magnetic field on non-metalic substances. He discvovered paramagnetism and diamagnetism. Although Faraday was very fond of giving lectures on scientific subjects, in the late 1850 he gave it up because of his failing memory.

            In 1861, Faraday was 70 and he retired from Royal Institution and moved to a house in Humpton court which queen Victoria offered him. By then his condition was so bad that he required permanent assistance. On 25th August 1867 he passed away.

   Faraday was a scientist famous for blending theory and experiment in his research. He had to spend small amount on apparatus and did not have much knowledge on mathematics. Many of his inventions were not used until decades after his death. Two electrical units are named after Faraday. One is Faraday unit used in measuring quantity of electricity and the other is the Faraady unit used in measuring the capacity of a capacitor.