It was while an apprentice that Faraday began reading scientific articles on chemistry and physics in the books he was set to bind.  He also tried to repeat the experiments of which he read.  And more, he pondered over them long and earnestly, until he saw clearly the principles involved in them.  It was in these early days of experimenting and self-education that the desire to become a philosopher was implanted in his mind.  He embraced every chance for scientific study and caught every opportunity for intellectual self-improvement.  In the last year of his apprenticeship he was enabled through the kindness of a customer at his master’s shop, to attend a course of four lectures on chemistry, given by Sir Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution.  This marked the turning point in his life.  He made careful notes of the lecture, and afterward transcribed them neatly into a book and illustrated them with drawings of the apparatus used.

After completing his apprenticeship, Faraday began life as a journeyman bookbinder.  He had, however, as he says, “no taste for trade.”  His love of science became a consuming desire that he sought in every way to gratify.  Inspired by his longing for scientific pursuits, he sent his lecture notes to Sir Humphry Davy, with the request that if opportunity offered he would give him employment at the Royal Institution.  Davy was favorably impressed with the lecture report, and sent a kindly reply to the young philosopher.  Shortly after this a vacancy did happen to occur at the Institution, and upon the recommendation of Davy, Faraday was elected to the place.  Thus, in 1813, in the humble capacity of an assistant charged with the simple duty of dusting and caring for the apparatus, Michael Faraday began the life that was destined to make him the first scientist of the world and to bring honor to the Institution which had given him his opportunity.

There is inspiration and encouragement to be found in reading the story of Faraday’s success.  He has been called a genius; but his genius seems to have largely consisted in persistent industry and the habit acquired in those early days of thinking over his experiments and reading until he had a clear perception of all there was in them.  He lived in his work, and loved it.  In the fifty busy years that followed his installment at the Royal Institution he digged deep into nature’s secrets, and gave the world many brilliant gems as evidence of his industry.  But of all his discoveries, electro-magnetic induction is the crowning masterpiece and that for which the world stands most his debtor.