The Faraday centenary : an errand boy who changed the world.

Date:
[1931]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Faraday centenary : an errand boy who changed the world. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    type known at that period as the “Voltaic pile,” which “worked,” much to his delight. Within him lay hidden the desire to increase his knowledge, to seek a wider field; the longing, not for fame but for a fuller and more interesting life; and this moved him to action when the opportunity arrived. Eight years passed, during which he must have read hundreds of books; we know that in this interval he studied chemistry, carried out many experiments, and constructed models—his original “electrical machine” is still treasured at the Royal Institution. Gradually, unknowingly, he was pre¬ paring himself for his future life-work, and though he had his trade, it did not satisfy him. He wrote to Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, asking to be given some employment, however humble, which might bring him into closer touch with scientific matter; but no answer came. A cus¬ tomer of his master, however, took him to hear a course of lectures on chemistry by Sir Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution—a memorable event
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