Description
The greatest experimental scientist Michael Faraday delivered these six lectures at London’s Royal Institution. Their subjects include the components, function, and weight of the atmosphere; capillary attraction; the carbon content in oxygen and living bodies; respiration and its analogy to the burning of a candle; and much more. Numerous illustrations. One of the greatest experimental scientists of all time, Michael Faraday (1791-1867) essentially created the science of electrochemistry,developing the first electric motor, electric generator, and dynamo. Michael Faraday: An Electric Personality A major figure in nineteenth-century science, Michael Faraday (1791-1867) made immense contributions to the study of electricity and magnetism, discovering the laws of electromagnetic induction and electrolysis. His experiments are the foundation of subsequent electromagnetic technology. He also had a sense of humor. When the Prime Minister of England William Gladstone asked Faraday what the usefulness of electricity would be, Faraday famously replied, “Why, Sir, there is every possibility that you will soon be able to tax it!” In addition to being a great experimenter, Faraday had the gift of exposition for a popular audience, as seen in the books which Dover has reprinted, The Forces of Matter (2010), Experimental Researches in Electricity (2004), and perhaps his most famous single book for the general reader, The Chemical History of a Candle (2003). It is reliably reported that Einstein had a photograph of Faraday on the wall of his study alongside portraits of Isaac Newton and James Clerk Maxwell. In the Author’s Own Words: “The world little knows how many of the thoughts and theories which have passed through the mind of a scientific investigator have been crushed in silence and secrecy by his own severe criticism and adverse examination: that in the most successful instances not a tenth of the suggestions, the hopes, the wishes, the preliminary conclusions have been realized.” Michael Faraday LECTURE I. A CANDLE: THE FLAME-ITS SOURCES-STRUCTURE-MOBILITY-BRIGHTNESS LECTURE II. BRIGHTNESS OF THE FLAME.-AIR NECESSARY FOR COMBUSTION-PRODUCTION OF WATER LECTURE III. PRODUCTS: WATER FROM THE COMBUSTION.-NATURE OF WATER.-A COMPOUND.-HYDROGEN LECTURE IV. HYDROGEN IN THE CANDLE.-BURNS INTO WATER.-THE OTHER PART OF WATER.-OXYGEN LECTURE V. OXYGEN PRESENT IN THE AIR-NATURE OF THE ATMOSPHERE.-ITS PROPERTIES.-OTHER PRODUCTS FROM THE CANDLE.-CARBONIC ACID.-ITS PROPERTIES LECTURE VI. CARBON OR CHARCOAL.-COAL-GAS.-RESPIRATION AND ITS ANALOGY TO THE BURNING OF A CANDLE.-CONCLUSION LECTURE ON PLATINUM NOTES
