Michael Faraday was a British scientist who made significant contributions to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. Some of his key accomplishments included discovering electromagnetic induction and inventing the electric motor. He was born in 1791 and spent his early life apprenticed as a bookbinder. In 1812, he was introduced to scientist Humphry Davy, who mentored Faraday and hired him as a laboratory assistant at the Royal Institution. Over the following decades, Faraday published numerous influential works and made pioneering discoveries that established the foundations of electromagnetism as a major science. He spent his later life conducting research, lecturing, and advising various scientific organizations until his death in 1867.

1. Michael Faraday 1791‐1867
A timeline of significant events and discoveries
1790
1791 22 September
Michael Faraday is born in Newington Butts, Surrey
(roughly where the Elephant and Castle is today.) His
father was a blacksmith and belonged to a small literalist
sect of Christianity called the Sandemanians. His mother
had been in service in a household in northwest England
before they moved to London.
,
A contemporary print Newington Butts in the 1820s
1792
1793
1794
In the mid 1790s the Faradays move to rooms over a
1795 coach house in Jacobs Mews, near Manchester Square on
1796 the western edge of London where they live until 1809.
1797
1798
1799
1800
1801
1802
Jacobs Mews, from The Life and Letters of Faraday
1803 by Henry Bence Jones, 1870
1804 As a child Faraday attends a ‘common day‐school’ where
he learns the rudiments of reading, writing and arithmetic.
in 1804, aged 13, he begins running errands for George
Riebau, a bookseller and stationer.
1805 7 October
Faraday is apprenticed as a bookbinder to George Riebau,
who runs a bookshop at 2 Blandford street. During his
seven‐year apprenticeship he develops an overriding
interest in science, spending time after hours reading the Riebau’s bookshop, from The Life and Letters of
books he binds. Faraday by Henry Bence Jones, 1870
1806
1807
1808
1809 By 1809 he has begun to keep a ‘philosophical miscellany’ where he records what he reads and
performs what experiments he can in the back of the shop.

2. 1810 Faraday begins to attend meetings at City Philosophical Society and lectures on scientific subjects
including electricity by John Tatum, taking careful notes and binding them.
30 October
Faraday’s father dies
1811
1812 February ‐ April
He is given tickets to attend Davy’s last four lectures at the RI by William Dance, who had seen his
notes of Tatum’s lectures. Again he takes careful notes and binds them into a book.
7 October
Faraday’s apprenticeship expires, he is employed as a bookbinder by Henri De La Roche
December
Faraday sends a letter and his notes of the lectures to Davy. Davy’s reply, dated Christmas Eve is,
‘kind and favourable’.
1813 January
Faraday is invited for an interview by Davy, but there is
currently no position available at the Royal Institution. A
few weeks later the laboratory assistant is dismissed.
1 March
Davy suggests Faraday for the post and he is appointed
laboratory assistant.
13 October
Davy invites Faraday to accompany him on a tour of the
continent as his assistant; Faraday leaves his job to go
along. Souvenir card showing Vesuvius, in Italy, from
Michael Faraday’s scrapbook
1814 June
Davy and Faraday travel through Italy and meet Alessandro Volta in Milan.
1815 17 April
Davy cuts his tour of the continent short following Napoleon’s escape from Elba and the party return
to England.
15 May
Faraday is reappointed to his post at the Royal Institution
From 1815 to 1818 he attends meetings of the City Philosophical Society where he gives his first
lectures.
1816 From 1818 to 1822 Faraday works on a project to improve the quality of steel alloys.
1817
1818
1819
1820

3. 21 May Silhouette portrait of
1821 Sarah Barnard from
Faraday is appointed Superintendent of the House of the Michael Faraday’s
Royal Institution scrapbook
2 June
He marries Sarah Barnard and a few weeks later he makes
his confession of faith in the Sandemanian Church
3 September
He discovers electro‐magnetic rotations (which can be
viewed as the principle behind the electric motor)
1822
1823 6 March
Faraday liquefies a gas (chlorine) for the first time.
1824 Faraday is elected Fellow of the Royal Society in January
1824 and shortly after becomes secretary of the
Athenaeum Club.
He begins work for the joint Royal Society and Board of
Longitude committee to improve optical glass; the project
takes up a large proportion of his time for the next six
years.
December
He gives his first lectures at the RI.
Somerset House, home of the Royal Society, by T.
Rowlandson, from Ackermann's Microcosm of
London, 1808
1825 7 February
Faraday is appointed Director of the Laboratory at the Royal Institution
May
He discovers bicarburet of hydrogen (benzene)
He initiates the Friday Evening Discourses for Royal Institution members and the Christmas Lectures
for children
1826
1827 Faraday publishes Chemical Manipulation, his only book, his other publications are collections of
papers or transcriptions of his lectures.
He continues work on the glass project, from December two thirds of his time is spent making and
testing glass ingots.
1828
1829 May
Faraday’s frustration with the glass project leads to him opening negotiations with the Royal Military
Academy, Woolwich. Davy’s death in Geneva helps bring the project to an end and Faraday stays at
the Ri, although he is also appointed part time professor at Woolwich and Scientific Adviser to the
Admiralty
1830

4. 1831 29 August
Faraday discovers electro‐magnetic induction, using an
iron ring with two coils of insulated wire, he repeats his
experiments and checks the results the next day.
October
He invents the electro‐magnetic generator. L: Faraday’s Induction ring, R: Faraday’s electric
generator from his experimental notebooks.
1832 Faraday receives an honorary doctorate from Oxford University. In July he is appointed Deacon in
the Sandemanian Church.
From 1832 to 1834 he works on electrochemistry, inventing, with WIlliam Whewell, its
nomenclature.
1833 18 February
Faraday is appointed first Fullerian Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution.
1834
1835 Faraday is awarded a Civil List pension, he initially refuses but, after some controversy, the matter is
settled and the pension authorised by the King.
1836 Faraday becomes Scientific Adviser to Trinity House, the
General Lighthouse Authority for England and Wales, a
post he holds until 1865 and which takes up much of his
time.
He also invents the "Faraday Cage" and explores the
nature of electricity.
Trinity House, contemporary print
1837
1838 20 March
Faraday’s mother dies
1839 Volume one of Experimental Researches in Electricity is published.
Faraday partially retires from lecturing and research due to ill health and does not return to them
fully until 1843
1840 15 October
Faraday is appointed an Elder of the Sandemanian Church. His duties include preaching and
baptising infants.
1841
1842
1843
1844 Volume two of Experimental Researches in Electricity is published
31 March
Faraday and 13 others are excluded from the Sandemanian Church for unknown reasons, most are
restored several weeks later.

5. 1845 13 September
Faraday discovers the magneto‐optical effect
September ‐ October
Faraday and the geologist Charles Lyell are appointed to
investigate the major explosion at Haswell Colliery and to
report to the government.
4 November
Faraday discovers diamagnetism
Faraday’s research over the next ten years leads him to
develop electromagnetic field theory.
Faraday’s magnetic laboratory, Harriet Moore
1846 c1850s
1847
1848 Faraday is offered the Presidency of the Royal Society but turns it down.
1849 Faraday works on the relation of gravity and electricity
1850
1851
1852
1853 From the mid 1840s Faraday researches electromagnetism, culminating in his
establishment of the field theory of electromagnetism in the mid 1850s which,
when mathematised by William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) and James Clark Maxwell, became (and
remains) one of the cornerstones of physics.
1854 6 May
Faraday gives a lecture on mental education in which he
speaks against spiritualism and table turning.
1855 Volume three of Experimental Researches in Electricity is
published
Faraday giving the 1855‐6 Christmas Lectures, Alexander Blaikley
1856 Faraday works on the transmission of light through solutions
1857
1858 Faraday again declines the offer of Presidency of the Royal
Society
On the instigation of Prince Albert Faraday is granted a
Grace and Favour house at Hampton Court, over the last
years of his life he spends increasing amounts of time
there.
The grace and favour house at Hampton Court, occupied 1858‐1967 by the
Faradays.

6. 1859 Faraday Publishes Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics
1860 21 October
Faraday is once more appointed an Elder of the Sandemanian Church
1861 Faraday gives his last series of Christmas lectures, The chemical history of a candle
1862 Faraday receives an honorary doctorate from Cambridge University
20 June
He gives his last lecture at Royal Institution
1863
1864 Faraday is offered and declines the Presidency of the Royal Institution
5 June
He resigns as Elder in Sandemanian Church
1865
1866
1867 25 August
Faraday dies at his Grace and Favour house at Hampton
Court
30 August
He is buried in the Sandemanian plot in Highgate
Cemetery
1868
1869
1870
Faraday’s grave in Highgate Cemetery, taken in 1931