Michael Faraday
A bookbinder's apprentice who read what he bound; refused a knighthood twice.
- Born
- 1791 · Newington Butts, London, England
- Roots
- English; family from the north, in a small dissenting church
- Family
- Working class
- His blacksmith father's illness kept the family in hardship; as a boy he was at times rationed a single loaf of bread a week.
- Education
- Rudimentary schooling; self-taught in the bindery
- Started with
- A bookbinder's bench
- Apprenticed at 14, he read the books he bound — an encyclopedia entry on electricity set the course.
- Affiliations & societies
- Sandemanian (Glasite) ChurchDocumented
- A small Christian sect in which he served as deacon and elder; its ethos shaped his lifelong refusal of honors.
- Information only — claims like these are often unverifiable and may be wrong.
The pathway
- 1812 · age 20Davy's lectures
A bindery customer gifts him tickets to Humphry Davy's Royal Institution lectures; he binds his 300 pages of notes and sends them to Davy with a job plea.
- 1813 · age 21Laboratory assistant
Davy, injured in an explosion, hires him; on the European tour Davy's wife treats him as a servant.
- 1821 · age 29Electromagnetic rotation
The first electric motor.
- 1825 · age 33The Christmas Lectures
Founds the children's science series that continues today.
- 1831 · age 39Electromagnetic induction
The principle behind every generator and transformer.
- 1853 · age 62Refusals
Declines a knighthood and, twice, the presidency of the Royal Society; also declines to develop poison gas for the Crimean War.
- 1867 · age 75Dies at Hampton Court
In a house granted by the Crown — accepted only after assurance it implied no honor.
Sources
Compiled from these references and contemporaneous press reporting. Figures are approximate; verify before relying on them.