The Story of Michael Faraday

I tell it better than any video. So a long time ago in London, before anybody had electricity in their houses or anything, there was a young 12-year-old boy, he was one of 12 children of a very poor family. The father had been a blacksmith of these 12 children, but he had gotten ill and he couldn't work. So at the young age of 12, young Michael was sent out to work. He had to leave school and he had to go work to help support his family. And he got a job helping people make books. So he would help put the glue and sew up the pages to make books. Young Michael knew how to read. He had learned how to read in school, and he took the opportunity to take this job and use it to learn even more. So what do you think he did with those books while he was buying them? He read them. And this particular bookbinder had a lot of scientific books set for binding. And so young Michael, at the young age of 12, got to read amazing science books that were written by a famous scientist at the time named Humphrey Davy. After a few years, Humphrey Davy came to town to give some lectures, and Michael really wanted to go hear Humphrey Davy speak. But the lectures required tickets, and the tickets cost money. He didn't have the money to go hear Michael Faraday speak. But one of the customers in the bookbinding shop knew that young Michael really liked science and gave him some tickets. So young Michael Faraday went to hear Sir Humphrey Davy speak and he took notes. He took notes all throughout these lectures. And what do you think he did with his notes when he was done? He made a book. He used his bookbinding ability to make a book of the notes that he had taken by going to hear Humphrey Davy speak. Do you know what he did with that book? Do you think he kept it to himself and poured over it and read it a bunch of times? He used it. He used that new knowledge to try to further his opportunities in life. So he used his bookbinding ability to further his opportunities. He used that book. He mailed it to Sir Humphrey Davy. Sir Humphrey Davy got the book and thought, Wow, this is a bright kid. Came to my lectures, took notes, made a book of it. I think I'll hire him as a bottle washer in my lab. Now do you think young Michael said, Bottle washer? I'm a bookbinder. I'm 14 and I'm a bookbinder. I'm not going to go wash bottles. Or do you think he said, The opportunity to just be in the room with the famous scientist. I might learn even more. Which one do you think he did? He took the opportunity to work as a bottle washer for a very small amount of money, I think less than he was making as a bookbinder, just to learn even more from Sir Humphrey Davy. At that time Sir Humphrey Davy was discovering new elements by passing electricity through compounds. Where did Humphrey Davy get his electricity from? Did he plug something into the wall? The battery had just been invented by Alessandro Volta in 1800. He would make stacks of coins with salty stuff in between. And Humphrey Davy would use electricity from these batteries to melt salt and pass electricity through salt and discover sodium and different elements. Well Michael Faraday picked up on all this information by washing bottles and being around Humphrey Davy. And one day Michael Faraday started playing around and he figured out how to make electricity without using a battery. He figured out how to move a magnet near a coil of wire. And you think Humphrey Davy was happy, or you think he was a little bit jealous at maybe some of the attention Michael Faraday was getting for discovering this amazing property of nature that when you move a magnet near a coil of wire you get electricity, you don't have to have a battery. So there's a lot of tensions between these two men. Michael Faraday went on to invent the motor, he invented the generator, he invented the transformer, which takes one voltage and makes it a different voltage. He got very sick from working around a lot of the chemicals that were in the lab. And by the end of his life he was a very ill man. Sir Humphrey Davy had never paid him very much money at all. But the Queen of England took pity on him and knew what contribution he had made to science and took care of him in his later years, bought him a house and took care of him and his wife. They never had children. And so he was able to retire in style, shall we speak. But I love this story because it's about a young child who takes the opportunities that he's given and uses them to learn even more and go even further. And so we're here today with electricity shining in the room. Light shining in the room because Michael Faraday figured out moving a magnet near a coil of wire. It's so interesting.