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Edited by William Crookes ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Covers all the aspects of a premier scientist
Michael Faraday is generally unappreciated as a scientist, he was clearly one of the greatest of all experimental scientists. In this book, we learn the many facets of this outstanding scientist, from his popular lectures to his deep-seated religious beliefs. He was an active member of a very small religious sect called the Sandemanians, a group whose numbers have never exceeded 1000. Religion was always present in his science, his firm belief in the conservation of energy was based on the thought that God would not waste anything. Often criticized for the lack of mathematical rigor in his publications, he nevertheless made fundamental contributions to the understanding of electricity, magnetism and chemistry.
However, the most significant aspect of the book is how it takes us back to an era when scientists openly explained their results to the public. Faraday regularly delivered lectures to a public that was very interested in what he would say, and in many ways this is something that the scientific community has lost. Common wisdom is that the public is generally uninterested in scientific matters, but that is not true. If the reasons for the research are explained in a sensible manner, then the public will support it financially.
A short, yet thorough book, it is ideal for a supplemental text in a history of science course. His scientific advances are explained using non-technical language with almost no mathematics. ... Read more

Book Description
In a world of darkness perched on the edge of discovery, Michael Faraday lit up the world of science, contributed to the Industrial Revolution, and changed the lives of everyone on Earth. Now a superb new biography illuminates the life of this amazing, reclusive, deeply contradictory man.

Born in 1791, Faraday was the son of a blacksmith with a thin education, yet he was gifted with a rare intelligence and intuition. He was a devout member of a small Christian sect that believed in the Bible’s literal word, yet he was open to all that humankind could invent from earthly knowledge. He was ambitious and savvy about spreading news of his work, yet he patented nothing and received no personal gain. In short, Faraday personified all the paradoxes of the early nineteenth century, a landscape in which class, faith, and desire clashed.

As apprentice to the esteemed Humphrey Davy of the Royal Institution, he helped discover the miner’s safety lamp, which revolutionized the search for and accumulation of coal, then went on to make a landmark study of induction, the connection between electricity and magnetism, and the idea of the electromagnetic field. From electric motors to precision-made eyeglass lenses to steel razors to liquid chlorine, his inventions–often designed with self-created instruments–have become staples of civilized society, the “roots of modern life.”

While rising in society, Faraday steered clear of politics and the seamy machinations of the material world, staying obedient to a higher authority. Though disdainful of “useless passion” and devoted to his wife, he found a confidante in the bright, liberated, and flirtatious daughter of Lord Byron. Trying to reconcile his severe religion and his demanding work, he eventually suffered a mental collapse.

An acclaimed biographer of artists, James Hamilton now captures the entire fascinating story of this individual and his era. A Life of Discovery is the definitive account of a remarkable man who merged intuition and logic, prayer and deduction. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

not enough knowledge on subject
Although it might sound as a very good idea, it is obviously pretty brave to write about Michael Faraday when you're not a scientist. Hamilton does complain in the editorial already to have accepted this work, and worthy enough to mention, he does not do a good job. Reading this long book you do get a lot of more or less single informations on the life of MF that taken together do not make up more than a small-minded reconstruction of whome he answered which letter when and using which tone. Pretty few notes on where science came from and what the dream of a final theory was about. Nothing at all on Maxwell and his electrodynamics, this alone is inexcusable. Nothing of course on how the theory failed already with Michelson and Morley in the late 1880's. Einstein, who admired Faraday like almost nodbody else, isn't even mentioned once. We do not get an insight into the Sandemanian sect. What we do get is pages of analysis of random photographs showing MF and others. This book has little understanding of the matter and therefore no life in it. Sorry.

A Good, Popular Biography of a Great Scientist
It is a sad fact of modern life--at least in America--that so many of the great scientific minds that helped create our modern life are forgotten.As a high school science teacher, I try to give my students some knowledge of the important figures of scientific history.Standing as one of the giants of nineteenth century science is the subject of this book, Michael Faraday.

Faraday's rise to the top of the scientific world is an interesting one.The son of a blacksmith, Faraday was apprenticed at an early age to a bookbinder.During his apprenticeship, however, he became interested in science through the popular public lectures on the subject and likely through reading some of the books he was binding.As his apprenticeship came to an end, Faraday tried to apprentice himself to a scientist and, through both hard work and good luck, attached himself to one of the most important scientists of the day, Humphrey Davy.

While working with Davy, Faraday learned the fundamentals of scientific research, demonstrating extraordinary ability as an experimentalist.In time, Faraday became his own man, achieving a place of honor at the Royal Institution where he loyally remained for the rest of his career.During that time, he made a number of important discoveries, including the basics of electromagnetism, developing the prototype of the modern electric generator among other devices that will become integral to our modern society.He also made a name for himself as a popular lecturer on science whose fame at the time could only be equaled by Charles Dickens.Through this, he made known his lifelong belief in universal scientific education for the young.Most significantly, he did this all with minimal formal schooling leaving him forever limited in some respects such as mathematical ability.

James Hamilton does a very good job of taking us through Faraday's life with depth but also in a very readable way.He brings out not only Faraday's scientific achievements but also his dedication to his strict form of Christianity (the Sandemanians) and the tension this sometime brought to his life.He showed Faraday's constant struggle against illness and his own limitations. Also, he shows something of Faraday's artistic side and how this influenced Faraday's research, most obviously in his support of the developing science/art of photography.

Though Hamilton's expertise in art gives an added dimension often missing from scientific biography, it also contributes to the two main weaknesses of this book.In general, Hamilton's explanations of Faraday's work is quite good, particularly for the general reader, but he does miss some opportunities.Most noticeably, he gives a very cursory coverage to Faraday's development of the field concept which plays such an important role in physics today.This is quite surprising considering how easily it lends itself to artistic depiction.Additionally, from his previous work it seems he has a fixation on the British landscape artist, J. Turner, and refers to him repeatedly throughout the book (particular in the latter part) whereas I could not see how this contributed in any real way to the story of Faraday.

Despite this, Hamilton has written a very good book here that will hopefully contribute to a revival in interest in this very important scientific figure, particularly here in the U.S.When I traveled to England some years ago I was surprised upon turning over a twenty pound note to see an image of Michael Faraday.Clearly Faraday still retains respect in his homeland.Scientific figures don't command that kind of respect here but Hamilton's book helps to show why they should.

A worthy book about a worthy character
One thing that delighted me about this book and about the person of Michael Faraday was the mixture of science and faith.While these two disciplines have parted ways and are no longer intertwined for many in the modern world, Michael Faraday is an intriguing example of both a devout believer and a ground breaking researcher.
Faraday's story also has immense appeal as it relates his riseout of humble beginnings on the basis of his own genius and merit, in contrast with the lingering emphasis of his time on inheirited wealth and position.
My only criticism is that the author, who evidently has written much in the realm of art history, adds a bit more content on art to this biography than seems justified.
On the whole, I recommend this book as it is a well told tale about a significant and intriguing character whose story is very much worth retelling and considering anew. ... Read more

Book Description
A self-educated man who knew no mathematics, Michael Faraday rose from errand boy to become one of Britain's greatest scientists. Faraday made the discoveries upon which most of twentieth-century technology is based and readers of this book will enjoy finding out in how many ways we are indebted to him. The story of his life speaks to us across the years and is a fascinating read, especially when the tale is told with the understanding and gusto that Professor Thomas-one of the UK's leading scientists-brings to the telling.Faraday took great trouble to make the latest discoveries of science, his own and others', intelligible to the layman, and the tradition he fostered has been kept alive ever since, so that the Royal Institution is as well known for its contributions to education as for its research. Written in a concise, nontechnical style, Michael Faraday and the Royal Institution: The Genius of Man and Place is a human account that provides an introduction to the roots of modern science and ways in which scientists work. The book is lavishly illustrated with drawings, cartoons, photographs, and letters-many never before published. There is no similar book on Faraday that interprets his genius in modern, everyday terms, making it understandable, interesting, and exciting reading for scientists and nonscientists alike. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Disappointing treatment of true genius
This is not a particularly good book. It is only readable because of the fascinating live that Michael Faraday lived. The author gives us a sense of that, but he could have used a more vigorous copy editor. And perhaps he could have refrained from filling page after page with quotations from different scientists of the day.

This is not a biography as such, more an account of Faraday's work and that of his associates at the Royal Institution and around the world. It offers some interesting historical insights, but overall it disappoints. ... for a 200-page paperback with B&W illustrations?? ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program. ... Read more