Michael Faraday

Michael Faraday (1791–1867), son of a poor blacksmith with almost no formal schooling, apprenticed as a bookbinder at age fourteen, reading every scientific book he bound. Attending Humphry Davy's lectures at the Royal Institution, he took 300 pages of notes and bound them as a gift, securing an appointment as laboratory assistant.

In 1821, Faraday invented electromagnetic rotation (the first electric motor). In 1831, moving a magnet through a coil of copper wire, he discovered electromagnetic induction, inventing the electrical transformer and generator that power modern civilization. He conceived electromagnetic field lines (*lines of force*), discovered diamagnetism, the magneto-optical Faraday effect, and formulated the quantitative laws of electrolysis.