Monday, April 28, 2014
Chapter 14: the simplest earthly place
As Faraday got older, the Thames river also deteriorated like his mind. What was once a beautiful river was now a sewer for London. The water was so bad you couldn't see half an inch into it. He was so descusted with it, he went home and wrote a letter the the times and it was published in just 2 days. Since Faraday wanted to be accepted as s something. He couldn't go back to his lab, so the Thames river was his way to be important in society. But as he grew older, so did his mind. He ended up stopping with the Thames river and ended up outlining his philosophy of education in and 1854 lecture. He stated that self education always had a place in his life and that as he advanced, he was his biggest critic. He always tried to be more and more strict.
In 1858, Faraday wanted science to be a branch of education. Four years later, he present this idea I front of the public school commissioners. He insisted that the problem of science education affected citizens of all classes.
As Faraday's mind deteriorated, he began thinking of trying to convert gravity into electricity. He though of dropping a brick from a high height and somehow it would electrify them through the air. He never was able to prove this.
In 1862, Faraday and his wife moved to a house in the ha ton court. His mind continually deteriorated. Sarah provided a safe place for Faraday's dwindling mind. Faraday sat virtually silent ina chair looking out his window. His wife tried to help his memory but he couldn't remember anything. On August 25,1867, Faraday passed away in his chair.
Chapter 13: the light unseen
In 1857, Faraday got a letter from Maxwell on "Faraday's lines of force". It was both a thrill and burdong for the aging Faraday since he could not understand it. To Maxwell, the lines of forces were all geometry, but Faraday lacked the mathematical capacity to understand this. Enegized by these ideas, he vowed to return to the lab to prove electricity and magnetic effects take time to move through space. In 1857, Faraday asked Maxwell's opinion about his speculation and he replied saying it will work. Maxwell soon got hired at the kings college and that is where he and Faraday first met face to face. In 1861, Maxwell came up with a mathematical formula that predicted the speed at which such an electromagnetic wave would travel at through space.
Chapter 12: a particle of infinite
In 1841, James Maxwell dafty started to the endinburgh academy and nobody thought he would ever amount to anything. They were wrong because as of now, Faraday was exploring the university of possiblities, and so was he. James sought to understand the workings of things. He risen to the top of his class and gotten awards in math, english, and he even published a paper on he geometry of ovals. In 1850 Maxwell decided to enter Cambridge intent on becoming a scientist. He immersed himself in home brewed experiments much like that of which Faraday started out doing. In 1854, Maxwell wrote to Thompson who had created Faraday's lines of force using math to ask for a list of books to read. It didn't take long long for Maxwell to be intruiged by faradays electricity concepts.
Chapter 11: Nothing is too wonderful to be true
Faraday was regularly removed from his work space from fatigue or nervous headaches. He started getting into the atom and what it is since nobody knew what it actually was. They all just assumed what it was because they could not see it. Faraday thought of it a a vast structure. It was to him a massless thing that was associated with force. Faraday offered a paradox regarding the nature of space and matter, specifically the distinction between an electrical insulator and conductor. He said that the inter atomic void is the only only continuous path through which electricity flows.
Chapter 10: an Excellent Days Work
After the acute attack Faraday had in 1839 that made him suspend his research, he sank into a period of depression and self enforced isolation. He suffered from low nervous attacks and memory loss so bad he couldn't finish a scentence. His condition was unpredictable. Nobody knew if he would ever return to his lab.
His wife Sarah did all she could but most of the time she took him out of the house and walked around town and went to the zoo. Faraday stopped writing letters also claiming that it was too exhausting for him. In 1845, a young researcher named William Thompson questioned Faraday and backed him why he didn't have any equations among his electricity books. Thompson also said that electricity or magnetism should have an effect on the travel of light. On august 30,1845, Faraday returned to his lab to redo an experiment he failed at nearly a decade ago to prove what the young Thompson said...
He did this by using polarized light and reflecting the glow of an oil lamp off an upright pane of glass. He then rotated the lenses until the lamps image was extinguishable. He then applied electricity to see if he could get a blackout image. In his first set of trials he disproved it but then he shifted to magnetism hoping for a different result and he succeeded. He was able to connect light and magnetism. It was called magnetism-diamagnetism.
Chapter 9: a cage of his own
Faraday soon left the electrochemical realm and turned toward electrostatic. His interests in electrostatics stemmed from his unease with conventional explanation of electrostatic phenomenon. His plan of attack was to demonstrate that all electrostatic phenomenons are reducible to his vision of the induction process or just the redistribution of charged molecules. In his lab he applied charge to various metal vessels. He found that the charge stayed to the outside of each vessel. So he made a giant 12x12x12 wood frame and covered it with copper and tin foil. He then put it on display, struck it with a high voltage static shock when he was in it to show what he ment. When he was in his 50s Faraday was plagued by nervous headaches. He also complained about confusion and started having memory loss. On September 14, 1840, Faraday walked out of his lab not k owing if he would ever return.
Chapter 8; Trial and Pleasure
Faradays initial report on electromagnetic induction was read before the royal society on November 24, 1831. He was so excited but didn't realize the Italians had done the exact same experiment. Faraday was yet again thought to be plaigerizing. It was deja vu all over again for Faraday. He learned a lesson...no longer would he release results prior to his publication. He soon stated that of magnetic lines of force, they occupy space both within and around a magnet. He showed this but pouring iron filling on a paper with a magnet over it.
Faraday learned induction requires either relative motion between a conductor and a magnet or else a change in the magnetic strength around a conductor. He later tried to convert gravity into electricity but had no luck with it. Although Faraday was worldwide known to be a experimenter, his credentials a a theorist weren't as great.
Faraday tried to induce electricity using the worlds largest magnet...itself. think of it as a compass needle. He was actually able to generate a detectable electric current by flipping a large wire loop in his lab. He needed to have a more conductive material between it. He turned to water instead on metal, but even with many experiments, he was never successful in this.
He soon started in electrical conductivity. The work was based on the Idea that water conducts electricity but ice doesn't. Any electricity that passed through water would separate it into hydrogen and oxygen but ice wouldn't because its solid. Faraday announced a series of new electrochemical terms such as electrode, anode, cathode, ion, electrolyte, electrolysis, and more.
The name Faraday had become synonymous with discovery.
Chapter 7: a twitch of the needle
By 1831, Faraday had reached worldwide fame. He was also invited by the royal society to give a lecture in 1829 at their annual bakerin. His salary remained at 100#s a year but his side buisness(commercial chemistry analysis) had swelled to 1000#s a year in 1830. He soon went on a new quest about magnetism arising from electricity. By the early 1800s, there was 2 main ways of producing electricity. They were friction like a static shock machine and chemically like a battery. Faraday thought of an experimental way to make electricity. It was induction. It was draw upon an object's innate electrical or magnetic essence to stimulate current in and adjacent wire. Faraday tried doing this experiment several times but failed every time. One day he tried it again using a 6" iron ring connected to a battery an found that it twitched when he connected it. He eventually experimented with different windings and different magnets to change how much he needle jumped.
Chapter 6: He smells the truth
Faraday was a secretary of the athenaem club, a social organizer for the scientific and literary itelligentsia and was packed with stuff to do. He often wrote to Ampere as a way to express how he truely felt. Faraday soon found a new compound called benezene and worked with the uses of it as a dying agent. He was soon nominated as a director of the institution. He took the job and automatically had problems with funding. There was no money for the winter coal needed to warm the place so Faraday came up with a 0% interest loan that was funded by the members. This paid for a lot of it but he needed something else to help pay. He soon though of charging people to come and see his lectures which in no time at all became very profitable. Some lectures even had as many as 1000 guests. After the lectures the people wound go into the library for tea and to talk about different things. Faraday soon turned into a great public speaker and people loved his lectures. He soon started giving lectures to small Kidd and making his lectures exciting by letting them help with the experiments. He even went as far as throwing potassium into water and let them see the explosion.
Faraday soon had a glass forge installed into the basement to try his hand at glass making but he had many problems trying to do glass and soon suffered from nervous headaches and weakness. He resigned from the glass forge in 1831 only having made 1 piece that was passable.
Chapter 5: Rising to the light
In October, 1820, Davy found passing current through a wire and putting it near a compass, it would disrupt the compasses magnetic field. He found that it produced what he called a "electronic magnetic field". This ment that electricity and magnetism were related. The royal institute rejected his theory of this electromagnetic force because of unproceded geometry. In 1821 Faraday writes a review on electromagnetism and Ampere came up with an idea saying it was a 2 way street and if electricity has an effect on magnetism than magnetism has an effect on electricity. James clerk Maxwell said that Ampere was the newton of electricity. But Faraday could not understand Amperes math he had found confirming electromagnetism. He understood enough however to convince himself than Ampere had not sufficiently made the case for it. Faraday was wrong in his though and Ampere had the math to prove it. Faraday kindly responded and said that he was skeptical of all theories.
So Faraday came up with his own experiment to see if he was right. He placed a magnet upright in a cup of mercury leaving only the top part exposed. He then suspended wire bouyed by a cork so the wire was both in and out of the mercury. He then attached a battery and waaallaa the wire spun conicle around the magnet. This was the begining of the electric motor.
Faraday posted his findings not realizing that the Italians had just posted a similar report and then the worse thing ever...he was a used of plagiarizing...Faraday repeatedly apologized but there was something worse than that. Davy hated Faraday now and did everything he could to make Faraday pay for not mentioning him in his paper as the guy who gave Faraday the idea. Davy did everything he could to make the whole world hate Faraday but the royal society forgave Faraday for his little mishap.
In 1823, Faraday scored another serious thing. He was successful in the liquefaction of chlorine gas. This time credited for suggesting to heat the chlorine under pressure. Davy then tired saying he already predicted it. Faraday was nominated to join the royal society but Davy viewed it as sign of disrespect and wanted him to take it down. But since Faraday did not put up the ballot he was not going to take it down. So Davy the president of the royal institute did. On January 1824, secret ballots were cast and Faraday was electric a member of the royal institution. Davy died in 1829 at the age of 51.
Chaoter 4: Fear and Confidence
Faraday returned in spiral 1815. In all, the trip was 19 months long. He was also invited by Davy to unroll the papyri in Italy but he refused saying he couldn't leave the royal institute. He soon became the trusted hands Davy needed in the lab. But Davy wasn't the only one that got his help. Professor William T. Brande also got faraday's help in the lecture hall and the labratory. In 1815 Faraday and Davy thought of a way to help miners in the coal mines. Since methane was responsible for many of the explosions, Faraday and Davy came up with a metal mesh to keep the oxygen away from the flames. The result was a stronger brighter flame that showed how much methane was in the air depending on how bright it was. But with just a little wind, it would create a huge explosion so they didn't really do anything.
Faraday ended up messing up the results of a phosphorus experiment that he was trying to recreate for a fellow scientist and he claimed the results were wrong and the other scientist was wrong. When Davy revealed this to the world, he looked like a fool. Faraday soon realized what he had done and apologized saying we are all open to errors.
Faraday soon met 19 year old Sarah Barnand and Faraday was in love. When her parents found out, they sent her to Ramsgate in order to separate them but Faraday followed her there. On June 12,1821 they were married and moved into the 2nd floor apartment of the royal institute. Sarah did not follow her husbands scientific path and said that she was the missing part In her husbands personal universe.
Faraday soon hated working for Davy and felt he had outgrown the old chemist. But he stayed feeling he was obligated to him because of how Davy helped him in the start. Faraday soon found a huge discover that would make him not bound to Davy anymore but would nearly destroy his career.
Chapter 3: The University of Experience
Davy and faraday spent 3 months in Paris. Faraday only left davys side once and he was spat upon and called horrible names. He stayed with davy after that. Davys ion wondered about diamonds. They are a carbon element but what are they made of? Soot or graphite? Using the power of the sun, Davy split the diamond and it released CO2 so it means it was pure carbon. So carbon could form diamonds soot or graphite. After a long trip they headed home and Faraday was excited to head back.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Chapter 2: Perception Perfectly Novel
When sir humphry Davy was a teen he started in chemistry. At age 16 though, his father died and his godfather pushed him to do a medical career. So Davy taught himself. He taught himself the study of theology, physics, mechanics, and math. He started out reading Lavoisier's book" elementary treatise on chemistry". He tried to make this magical art into modern science. But Lavoisiers theory of heat was very controversial. So being the person Davy was he tried the experiment and published his findings claiming that it was wrong but it was Davy who was wrong. So at age 19, Davy left his medical apprenticeship to take a job at the pneumatic institute at Bristol. He started testing gases to see there effect on people except the people he tried them on wasn't but 1 person and that was himself that led to him almost dying on several occasions. He inhaled CO, CO2, and his most important discovery nitric oxide. In those days nitric oxide was thought to be poisonous but Davy did not die when he inhaled it. He instead felt a tingling sensation that made him start to laugh uncontrollably. He dubbed it the name laughing gas. He then started to experiment with it more and more and eventually published a 580 page report on it in 1800. By 1803 the pneumatic institute was no more.
Davy was soon appointed to the royal institution. He also received the Copley medal in 1803 which was the highest award the institution could give. Davy soon started messing with electricity. He found that when electricity was passed through water, the water molecules would separate into hydrogen and oxygen. He gave a lecture on this in 1806. He also started isolating chemicals such as sodium potassium calcium and barium for just a couple.
In 1812 faradays apprenticeship ended and he got a job working for Henri de la Roche. This was a complete 180 from what he was used to to. Faraday had no free time and was not encouraged to be a chemist by him. On march 1 1813, Faraday joined the royal society as a chief bottle washer. This put him very close to Davy and Davy soon let Faraday help by doing small chemical task but that soon led to bigger tasks including brewing nitrogen trichloride which was very explosive. Faraday also started helping with Davy's great lectures. Soon Davy left for a multi year trip across london. Farady though he was gonna loose his only true mentor but Davy asked Faraday to join along. Faraday was thrilled but mrs Davy wasn't as excited...
Chapter 1: improvement of the mind
In the early life of Micheal Faraday he was an apprentice to George Riebau as a bookbinder. He did this till he was age 21. In the beginning, Faraday used Riebaus's show as a library, classroom, and a labratory. Faraday's dad, jokes Faraday was a blacksmith that barely kept his family of 6 out poverty.
In Faraday's time, heat light and magnetism weren't really explained they were just assumed. They knew they could mathematically could find them out but they could not actually explain what they really were.
Young Faraday needed a mentor to smooth out the rough edges and shape him into a true scientist. That person was watts. He was the first person to make Faraday think. Learning from watts, Faraday took elocation lessons 2 hours a week for 7 years. One day while working in the book shop binding books he found the 1797 edition of encyclopedia Britannica. In this book he found a 127 page exert on electricity by a surgeon named James Tytler. Through this, he learned the importance of the observed fact and that he must witness stuff first hand. So he started going to lectures about electricity. It was by Tatum and Faraday vigerously sketched and recorded everything that he saw or heard. Soon the young Faraday started developing his own ideas and some of them didn't agree with Tatum. When Faraday mentioned his own ideas, he started giving his own lectures which disproved Tatums. There was one person Faraday admired. His name was Sir Humphry Davy. He was a famous chemist at the time. Well Faraday regularly started attending Davy's lectures on electricity and on other things. In only 4 lectures, Davy disproved Lavoisier's theory of acid and said that he jumped to the conclusion to quickly.
In July 1812, Faraday started his own electrostatic experiments. He made his own batteries and started making them bigger and bigger. But in the eyes of the scientific community, Micheal Faraday did not exist.
Monday, March 17, 2014
Still no book...
Alright so the book was suppose to be here by last week but it hasn't come yet...so I've been reading up on what people's opinions are on this book and it really has me excited to dive into this book. Most people say how he is a humble self taught brilliant man that spoke for what he believed. I was even able to find a very interesting quote that says
"If there was one overriding element to Faraday's character, it was humility. His 'conviction of deficiency,' as he called it, stemmed in part from his deep religiosity and affected practically every facet of his life. Thus Faraday approached both his science and his everyday conduct unhampered by ego, envy, or negative emotion. In his work, he assumed the inevitability of error and failure; whenever possible, he harnessed these as guides toward further investigation. Faraday adhered to no particular school of scientific thought. Nor did he flinch when a favored hypothesis fell to the rigors of experiment".
This quote alone makes me want to read this book even more. If by tomorrow the book does not show I will download one and read it on line as the suspense of this book is killing me.
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