In these switch-flicking days of instant light and heat it is hard to imagine what an immense impact electricity had on life in the 19th century. People travelled from miles around to see demonstrations of electric light bulbs and they marvelled at the electric telegraph which enabled communication over vast distances. Yet despite this, some scientists predicted that electricity was a fad that would never catch on. In this wonderful pocket-size book we are introduced to the life-changing times of Michael Faraday, the father of electricity in Britain and a man who paved the way for the amazing technological advances that directly followed from his discoveries. Morus shows that Faraday was a prodigy long before he began to harness electricity. He was brought up against a scientific background in London and served his apprenticeship with the flamboyant chemist, Sir Humphry Davy. The pupil soon overtook the master and shook Victorian society to its roots. An illuminating read in every sense. (Kirkus UK)
Product Description
The only scientist to appear on the British twenty pound note, Michael Faraday is one of the most recognisable names in the history of science. Faraday's forté was electricity, a revolutionary force in nineteenth-century society. The electric telegraph made mass-communication possible; hopeful inventors during the 1840s looked forward to the day when everything would be done by electricity. By the end of the century, electricity really was in the process of transforming everyday life. What was Faraday's role in all this? How did his science come to have such an impact on the Victorians' (and ultimately on our) lives? Iwan Morus tells the story of his upbringing in scientific London and his apprenticeship at the Royal Institution with the flamboyant chemist, Sir Humphry Davy, against the backdrop of a vibrant scientific culture at the centre of an Empire near the peak of its power.
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