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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Michael Faraday
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(1791–1867) Experimental physicist responsible for important disoveries in electromagnetism. The son of a blacksmith, he was largely self-educated and only acquired training in science after applying for a job as *Davy's assistant at the *Royal Institution in 1812. Until the age of 30 he was primarily a chemist (his discoveries included benzene), but from 1831 he was fascinated by the relationship between magnetism and electricity.
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His experiments led him to electromagnetic induction (simultaneously discovered in the USA by Joseph Henry), which was an essential step on the way to the dynamo and transformer; his study of the laws of electrolysis provided such familiar modern concepts and words as electrode, anode and cathode; and his idea of lines of force led *Maxwell towards modern field theory. Faraday had a genius for communicating the excitement of experimental science, particularly in the famous Friday Evening Discourses which he began to give in 1826 at the *Royal Institution. His laboratory at the institution is kept as a museum.
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