Michael Faraday and the Electrical Century

Michael Faraday, one of the most recognizable names in science, was one of the pioneering forces behind the development of electricity as a source of energy. But what was his exact role in all this? This is the story of his upbringing and education, with the backdrop of an empire near the peak of its power.

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The only scientist to appear on the British twenty pound note, Michael Faraday is one of the most recognisable names in the history of science. Faraday's forte was electricity, a revolutionary force in nineteenth-century society. The electric telegraph made mass-communication possible; hopeful inventors during the 1840s looked forward to the day when everything would be done by electricity. By the end of the century, electricity really was in the process of transforming everyday life. What was Faraday's role in all this? How did his science come to have such an impact on the Victorians' (and ultimately on our) lives? Iwan Morus tells the story of his upbringing in scientific London and his apprenticeship at the Royal Institution with the flamboyant chemist, Sir Humphry Davy, against the backdrop of a vibrant scientific culture at the centre of an Empire near the peak of its power.