Michael Faraday

Newington, Great Britain, 1791-London, 1867) British scientist. One of the most outstanding physicists of the 19th century, he was born into a humble family and received a basic education. At an early age he had to start working, first as a newspaper delivery boy, and at the age of fourteen in a bookstore, where he had the opportunity to read some scientific articles that prompted him to carry out his first experiments.

One of his first actions was to attend the lectures on chemistry given by Sir Humphry Davy, a British chemist, at the Royal Institution. In one of the meetings Faraday asked Davy to consider him as an assistant in his laboratory, so when the position became vacant, Davy offered it to Faraday and so he began to work actively in the field of science. achieving important advances such as: the discovery of benzene and the first organic substitution reactions, among the most outstanding.

Also, around this same time and inspired by the discovery of magnetic fields generated by electric currents carried out by the Danish scientist Hans Christian Oersted, Faraday managed to develop the first electric motor.

Later he would venture into the phenomena of electromagnetic induction, observing that a moving magnet through a coil induces an electric current in it. Such a situation also made it possible to formulate mathematically the law that governs the production of electricity by a magnet.

Likewise, he carried out electrochemical experiments that allowed the direct relationship of matter with electricity.

And after appreciating how salts are deposited in an electrolytic cell by passing an electric current through it, Faraday determined that the amount of substance deposited is directly proportional to the amount of circulating current.

In his honor, the Farad (F) is the unit of electrical capacity of the International System of Units.