- What kind of luck did a brilliant scientist
like Michael Faraday need to succeed in life?
Well, it turns out quite a lot.
Fortunately, he did have a lot of luck.
From a supportive boss, a good book,
a generous patron, a chemical explosion,
a fistfight, and a fortunate outbreak of the plague.
Wait a minute, those last three
don't sound fortunate at all.
Well, they were fortunate for Faraday
and I'll explain in the video, ready, let's go.
♪ Electricity electricity ♪
(gentle upbeat music)
Michael Faraday seemed an unusual person
to change the world.
He's born in 1791, to mostly out of work blacksmith
in the slums of London.
His rudimentary education was cut particularly short
as his mother took him out of school
after just a few months to keep them away
from an abusive teacher.
He never learned Latin or any languages other than English
and astonishingly, he also never learned mathematics
except maybe basic algebra.
Also, he was born poor at a time
when it was incredibly difficult
for a poor person to study science.
In England there were no free libraries
and most scientific books were written in Latin
and assumed the reader had a formal education.
Lectures were expensive and it was also difficult
and expensive to get materials for experiments.
Most lower class jobs were seven days a week
and 12 hours a day.
Finally, no one wanted to publish the work
of an amateur scientist
who didn't come from a good background.
Faraday did have a few advantages.
First, he was white and male and Christian.
Second, he was brilliant and organized.
And third, he was very lucky, repeatedly.
His luck began when he was 13 years old
and he got a job delivering books
for a nice book seller named George Riebau.
He said that Faraday spent all his free time quote,
searching for some mineral or vegetable curiosity
his mind ever engaged.
Riebau gave Faraday a lot of free time
to experiment and to go to lectures.
He also gave him space in the back of the bookshop
to conduct experiments.
Most importantly, he left his young employee read any book
that floated through the bookshop.
Years later, Faraday credited two books
for inspiring him to go into science.
The first book was an old edition
of the "Encyclopedia Britannica," which had 127 pages
on the latest developments in electricity.
The second was a book called, "Conversations In Chemistry."
A bit of background on the chemistry book.
At the time the most famous science speaker
was a man named Humpry Davy.
Davy gave hugely popular, poetic and dazzling talks
for the upper-crust on chemistry at the Royal Institution.
A wealthy woman named Jane Marcet
went to a talk and found it confusing.
When she asked around, she found she wasn't alone.
Most people were confused,
especially the women who had no science background.
After she asked her husband to explain it to her,
she found the lectures to be far more interesting.
For this reason,
she wrote a simple introduction into chemistry quote,
especially for the female sex.
Now this was an extremely sexist time,
but there are no other books that explained chemistry
on a simple level, so it became a best seller.
Years later, Faraday they said that quote,
I felt like I had got hold
of an anchor in chemical knowledge and clung fast to it.
Then's my deep veneration for Mrs. Marcet.
In February of 1810, Faraday borrowed a shilling
from his older brother
and went to his first science lecture.
Faraday took copious notes,
added his thoughts and experiments
and created a book of his own.
He dedicated the book to his kind boss, Riebau.
Quote, to you is to be attributed
the rise and existence of that small portion of knowledge
related to the sciences, which I possess.
Meanwhile, Humpry Davy,
the man whose talks inspired Jane Marcet
to write a chemistry book,
was becoming more and more admired.
In 1812, he was made a baron and married a rich socialite.
Now the Davy was Sir Humpry Davy
with a demanding social life and wife,
he decided he would curtail giving so many talks.
Therefore, he put together series of four final talks.
Tickets to these talks
were ridiculously difficult to come by.
Luckily for Faraday, a man named Mr. Dance
had seen Faraday's book on chemistry
and decided to give the young man an incredible gift,
tickets to all four of Davy's final talks.
As you might expect, Faraday was entranced by the talks.
It took him about five months afterwards
to collect enough money to recreate Davy's experiments,
creating gases with a homemade battery.
He wrote to a friend about his adventures.
Quote, I sir, I my own self cut out seven disks of zinc
of the size of half pennies each.
I sir covered them with seven half pence
and I interposed between them paper soaked in salt water.
Faraday then placed the ends of the battery
in a solution of salts and noted that, quote,
both the wires became cut covered in a short time
with bubbles of some gas.
Just as with the previous lectures,
Faraday created a book of notes from Davy's talks,
interspersed was his own experiments and observations.
Faraday wrote a pleading letter
to the president of the Royal Institute for a job,
but never got a reply, even to reject.
In October of 1812, Faraday finished his apprenticeship,
unable to get a job in science,
he got a job with another bookseller.
This new boss had no interest
in furthering Faraday scientific interests.
He was not allowed to do ad hoc experiments
in the back of the room.
He was not allowed to reprove the books.
He was not even allowed
to take Wednesdays off to go to talks.
Faraday morosely wrote a friend that quote,
with respect to the progress of the sciences,
I know but little and I'm now likely to know still less.
I must resign science entirely
to those who are more fortunate
in possession of time and means.
Luckily for Faraday, Humpry Davy heard his eye
in a chemical explosion and needed an assistant.
His friend, Mr. Dance,
the same one who got Faraday the tickets,
got Faraday his dream job
of assisting his idle for a few days.
When he was done, Faraday sent a letter to Davy
asking for permanent job,
along with this precious book of notes and experiments.
Davy responded with a short note of encouragement,
that Faraday kept until his death, but then added
he didn't need any help at that time.
Once again, Faraday has a spot of luck
as one of Davy's assistants got in a fight
with an instrument maker and was fired.
Finally, Faraday was working in science.
Faraday quickly proved to be an able assistant
and Davy began to rely on him more and more.
The following year, Davy became so famous
that he and his wife were given special passports
by Napoleon to travel to Europe,
even though there was a 20 year long war
between England and France.
When Davy's personal valet refused to visit the enemy,
Davy asked Faraday to join them
as an assistant and temporary valet.
Faraday was nervous about the trip.
He'd never been outside of London.
And he also had a bit of a distaste for being a servant,
but he decided to join in on the adventure.
Through Davy, Faraday met all of the important scientists
of France and Italy, and it was said that quote,
we admired Davy, but we love Faraday.
Faraday found his time with Davy
to be endlessly educational, quote,
the constant presence of Sir Humpry Davy
was a mind inexhaustible of knowledge and improvement.
Although Faraday got along very well with Davy,
the same cannot be said of Davy's wife, Jane.
Jane Davy was from the upper crust of society
and did not like associating with someone
from a poor background like Faraday.
Faraday complained that Jane Davy, quote,
delights and making her inferiors feel her power.
Once when they were on the perilous sea voyage
in the Gulf of Genoa,
Mrs. Davy became too ill to speak.
Faraday wrote to a friend that it was worth the danger
to their lives, just to enjoy her silence.
Their relationship hit its lowest point when the boat landed
and they were invited to dinner
with Mrs. Jane Marcet and her husband.
This was the same Jane Marcet
who wrote the "Conversations in Chemistry,"
then inspired Faraday in the first place.
At the dinner, Davy's wife in front of the assembled guest
told Faraday that he should eat dinner
in the kitchen with the other servants.
After dinner, Jane Marcet husband tried
to fix this injustice by announcing loudly, quote,
and now my dear sirs,
let us go and join Mr. Faraday in the kitchen.
Things were reaching a breaking point for Faraday.
He wrote a friend, quote,
alas, how foolish was I to leave home,
to leave those whom I loved and who loved me?
Who knows what would've happened
if they hadn't heard there was an outbreak of plague
on their next stops, Greece and Turkey.
Reluctantly, Humpry Davy decide
to cut their trip short and returned home.
See, lucky plague.
Back in England, Faraday was promoted
to semi-independent researcher,
although he continued to help Davy for the next six years.
In 1821, Faraday was asked to write a report
on the latest development in electricity.
As was his way, he read all of the experiments he could find
and recreated them,
including a very strange experiment conducted in Denmark
where current in a wire moved the compass needle
in a most unusual way.
This experiment that proved
that electricity affected magnetism
was to transform Faraday's life and the world.
And that story is next time
on The Secret History of Electricity.
♪ Electricity electricity ♪
♪ Electricity electricity. ♪
Thanks for what watching my video.
Please remember to give it a nice thumbs up.
Also, if you haven't watched the previous video
about Davy and laughing gas, it's a great story here.
I think you should check it out.
And also, check out the next one
about Oersted and his experiments
with current and a wire and magnets, really interesting.
Okay, thanks a lot.
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Or check out my webpage www.kathylovesphysics.com.
Okay, have a nice day.
(gentle upbeat music)