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September 22, 1791 was an important day in the history of science, when Michael Faraday, one of the most influential figures in the future development of science, came into the world.

Michael Faraday was born in a blacksmith's home in Newington, Surrey, England. because of his poor family, he dropped out of primary school for only two years and became a newsboy. Faraday, who had no formal school education, eventually became a great physicist and chemist and one of the most influential figures in the history of science in the 19th century.

Faradelius has a diary, which is an eye-catching scientific literature. His laboratory work from 1820 to 1862 is continuously recorded in neat handwriting in the diary. His thoughts and opportunities, dreams and confusion, hesitation and distress, success and excitement all jump on the yellowed pages.

The diary, published by the Royal Society in 1932, consists of seven volumes and 3263 pages, with thousands of illustrations reflecting the footprints of Faraday's scientific life and his achievements.

In physics, Faraday first revealed the nature of electricity, and first put forward the basic concepts of "static electricity", "power supply", "electrolysis" and "magnetism". He broke the misunderstanding that electricity had five different forms, such as lightning, friction electricity, voltaic electricity, electromagnetically induced electricity and animal electricity, and believed that the nature of electricity was unified, but the quantity and intensity were different, or the mechanism and phenomenon were different.

Using iron filings, he introduced the concept of "magnetic force line" and used it to explain the magnetic interaction between magnets and magnets, between magnets and current-carrying coils, or between current-carrying coils, and clearly pointed out that this interaction was due to the existence of a "field" around them. The proposition of the glorious idea of matter field is a qualitative leap in the understanding of the interaction between matter, which has an important influence on Maxwell's establishment of electromagnetic field theory, and it has triggered the cross-century development of electromagnetic research.

While studying the magnetism of matter, he discovered diamagnetic materials, studied the influence of magnetic field on the polarization of light, and discovered the phenomenon of magnetic rotation, which revealed the relationship between light and electromagnetism, which established an important foundation for understanding the characteristics of electromagnetic waves of light. Faraday also invented the electromagnetic rotating disc, which became the source of the birth of generators in the future. It is worth mentioning that Faraday revealed the corresponding relationship between electricity and magnetism and established the law of electromagnetic induction, which is comparable to the second law of Newtonian mechanics in electromagnetism.

As a chemist, he discovered benzene; completed the development of alloy steel and heavy glass; pioneered metallographic analysis; experimentally studied the cage hydrate of chlorine, a special substance with high latent heat that became an important heat transfer medium for refrigeration equipment; he established a method for the preparation of hexachloroethane and tetrachloroethylene by substitution reaction He invented the liquefaction method of hydrogen chloride, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide and hydrogen by low temperature and pressure method. More importantly, in explaining the nature of electric current, he studied the effect of electric current on acid, alkali and salt solutions and established two laws of electrolysis, which not only created a new field of electrochemistry, but also laid the foundation for the study of the particle properties of electricity. both laws are named after him.

Faraday's chemistry laboratory was ignored for a long time because of the British hierarchy and the prejudice of Faraday teacher Henry David, until it finally attracted the attention of the scientific community in 1824. In January of that year, Faraday was elected a member of the Royal Society; in 1825, he succeeded David as laboratory director of the Royal Society Institute; in 1833, he became the first commoner to become a professor of chemistry at the Royal Institute of Fuller Ryan, the most influential tenured professor of chemical research in the UK.

Born as a civilian and without systematic education, how on earth did he reach the academic peak?

In order to overcome the weakness of his lack of education, Faraday's only way is not to miss every opportunity to learn and learn tenaciously. At the age of 13, when he worked as a bookbinding worker in a bookstore, he regarded a mountain of books as his "library" and found a beacon in Encyclopedia Britannica and Chemical Random. He joined the London philosophy Society, a youth scientific organization at that time, and regarded it as his "social university", from which he learned the basic knowledge of physics, chemistry, astronomy, geology and meteorology. While listening to a series of lectures by the famous chemist David, he meticulously sorted out the lecture notes and bound it into a 300-page collection of Sir Henry David's speeches. During his two-year long journey with David as an experimental assistant, his public identity and treatment were servants. Although this had made his heart very painful, his poor background and experience of struggle made him learn to "endure", "wait" and "calm down", and a deep driving force made him "don't care." As a result, "indirect learning" during travel is even more than what is normally learned. The communication between famous scholars opened his eyes, inspired many new ideas, increased his experience, and learned French and Italian by the way.

The chemist David Faraday's greatest contribution in physics is to establish the relationship between electricity and magnetism, which laid the foundation for the establishment of Maxwell's electromagnetic theory. If Maxwell's theory is a building, Faraday laid the foundation for it, the most important of which is the law of electromagnetic induction he created.

In 1820, Oster discovered the magnetic phenomenon of electricity, which became a sensational event in the history of physics. This incident prompted people to think about the question: since electrical energy produces magnetism, can magnetic energy generate electricity? People hope to find the inverse effect of the current magnetic effect. This incident also aroused the interest of Faraday, who firmly believed that there must be a corresponding relationship between electricity and magnetism, and that the inverse effect of magnetoelectricity must exist.

In 1831, he began to solve the mystery. He put the galvanometer in one room, the coil and magnet in another, and connected the coil to the galvanometer through a small window.

When doing the experiment, he first inserted the magnet into the coil, and then went to the other room to look at the galvanometer, the pointer did not swing, indicating that there was no current; he pulled the magnet out of the coil, and then looked at the galvanometer, the pointer still did not swing. Doesn't the magnet have any effect on the coil? In desperation, he took the coil back to the laboratory with the magnet inside, and at the moment he pulled out the magnet, the pointer of the galvanometer suddenly swung, and he put the magnet into the coil, and the pointer swung again. It dawned on him that the "electricity generated by magnetism" is the transient current that occurs when the magnet is inserted into or pulled out of the coil.

Then he did another set of experiments. He wound two coils, one thick and one thin, the thin coil connected to the power supply, and the thick coil connected to the galvanometer, as shown in the following figure.

The intention of this experiment is clear. The coil connected to the power supply is an electromagnet. If another coil has an induced current, the pointer of the galvanometer must be deflected. Sure enough, the galvanometer pointer deflected at the moment the thin coil was inserted or pulled out; then he put the thin coil into the thick coil, and the galvanometer pointer deflected at the moment when the thin coil was turned on or off. In this way, Faraday did dozens of experiments in succession according to his preset plan, and finally discovered the law of magnetoelectricity, which is the law of electromagnetic induction.

Faraday finally successfully completed the electromagnetic induction experiment in October 1831, and he gave a public demonstration at the Royal Society. This phenomenon reveals the relationship between electric field and magnetic field, which is further developed into the theoretical equation of electromagnetic field by Maxwell.

Unlike other famous scientists, Faraday's own experience made him more aware of the deep desire for learning among ordinary people, and made him pay more attention to popularizing science to the public. especially to make young people love and understand scientific knowledge. At his suggestion, the Royal Society set up the "Friday Lecture", which he gave more than 100 lectures from 1826 to his retirement in 1862.

Faraday was giving a Christmas speech in 1856. In addition, he gave a speech to the annual "Christmas Lecture" held by the Royal Society. His speech is equipped with an experimental demonstration, which is easy to understand and fascinating. According to his lectures, later generations collected them into a volume and compiled them into a book "the Story of candles". The book has been translated into many languages and has become a model in popular science books.

Faraday told his friend that scientific work should be "like a torch, shining from the beginning, endlessly maintaining its splendor." Therefore, this tradition of the Royal Society has been handed down to this day, and has always maintained its "unremitting splendor".

Faraday understood his reputation and status, and the Royal academic Committee hired him as president of the society, which he refused again and again. He replied, "I am just an ordinary man, and if I accept the honor bestowed on me by the Royal Society, I cannot guarantee my honesty and integrity, not even for a year."

For the same reason, he declined the post of dean of the Royal College. When the British royal family decided to grant him a knighthood, he said: "Faraday was born a civilian and does not want to become an aristocrat." Many people do not understand this, but Faraday's good friend Tiindell gave a good explanation: "in his eyes, compared with the 'thunderstorm' on the Brighton Plateau, what is the splendor of the court?" Compared with the sunset, what is all the royal furnishings? In his mind, both 'thunderstorm' and 'sunset' can arouse a kind of ecstasy; in his mind, those worldly splendor and wealth are of course worthless. " He went on to say, "one side can get 150000 pounds easily, and the other is completely unpaid research, but he chooses the second, and ends in poverty." This is the solemn choice of a blacksmith's son and a bookbinder's apprentice.

Faraday died on August 25, 1867, and in accordance with his last wishes, only his name and date of birth were inscribed on the tombstone.

The descendants of the statue of Faraday in the Savoy Cemetery in London chose the Faraday as the unit of capacitance in memory of the master of physics, Prometheus, who lit the fire for the human world in the real world.

Wen Yuan: 365 days in the History of Science, slightly edited by Wei Fengwen Wu Yi Editor: Zhang Runxin this article comes from the official account of Wechat: Origin Reading (ID:tupydread), author: Wei Fengwen, Wu Yi, Editor: Zhang Runxin

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