Michael Faraday collection

The collection comprises of correspondence by Faraday to John Franklin regarding the British Naval Exploring Expedition, 1825-1827 (led by Franklin) sometimes called the Arctic Land Expedition.

Michael Faraday was born on 22 September 1791 at Newington Butts. Having received little formal education, he was apprenticed to a bookbinder in 1804, becoming interested in science through reading scientific publications and attending lectures given by, amongst others, Sir Humphry Davy. In 1813, he was engaged as a chemical assistant at the Royal Institution in London. In 1815, Faraday resumed his post at the Royal Institution where he began to conduct numerous scientific experiments. He was promoted superintendent of the house in 1821, the year in which he discovered the principle of the electric motor, later publishing his work on electromagnetic rotations. In 1823, he liquefied chlorine, thus proving that a gas was transformable to a liquid state, and two years later isolated the compound benzene.

In 1830, Faraday was appointed professor of chemistry at the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, a post he held until 1851. During the 1830s, Faraday conducted numerous experiments in electricity and electromagnetism, discovering the phenomenon of electromagnetic induction in 1831, and conducting research on electrolysis in 1833, thus formulating Faraday's Laws. In addition to other scientific contributions, he produced the first dynamo and discovered that a magnetic field can rotate the plane of polarized light, later known as the Faraday Effect. Between 1836 and 1865, Faraday acted as scientific adviser to Trinity House, an establishment responsible for safe navigation around the shores of England and Wales. After his health began to deteriorate in 1841, he conducted fewer experiments and devoted more of his time to lecturing. He died on 25 August 1867 at Hampton Court in London.

The correspondence with Franklin is arranged chronologically

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Descriptions compiled by N. Boneham, Assistant Archivist with assistance from R. Stancombe and reference to Dictionary of National Biography volume 18 Smith, Elder & Co. London (1889) and Encyclopaedia Britannica Micropaedia volume 4 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. Chicago (1974) and Physicians & Scientists and BBC and The Royal Institute and Arctic, exploration and development c500 BC to 1915, an encyclopaedia by Clive Holland Garland Publishing, London (1994) ISBN number 0824076486 and Exploring Polar Frontiers, a historical encyclopaedia by William Mills San Diego and Oxford, 2003

Clive Holland Manuscripts in the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, England - a catalogue, Garland Publishing New York and London (1982) ISBN 0824093941.

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