1-157-242 - Oxford Science Archive/Heritage Images

Michael Faraday, British physicist and chemist, 1881. Top left: reading when apprenticed to Riebau as a bookbinder; top right; experimenting; bottom: giving a Friday evening discourse at the Royal Institution, London. Faraday (1791-1867) was one of the greatest scientists of the 19th century. His most significant contribution was the Experimental Researches on Electricity which was published over 40 years, where he described his discoveries, including the laws of electromagnetic induction (1831) and the laws of electrolysis (1833). He also discovered the principles of the electric motor and dynamo.