ABSTRACT
Michael Faraday is generally held to be one of the greatest experimental philosophers of all time. According to Albert Einstein he was also responsible along with Clerk Maxwell, for the greatest change in the theoretical basis of physics since Newton. Such was the prodigality of his output and the diversity of his skills that modern chemists, no less than physicists, engineers and materials scientists, regard him as one of the founders of their subjects: some sciences and technologies owe their very existence to his work. No name stands higher in the general esteem of scientists the world over than that of Faraday; and few names are encountered more frequently by first year university students of science than his. He bequeathed to posterity a greater body of pure scientific achievement than any other physical scientist, and the practical consequences of his discoveries have profoundly influenced the nature of civilised life.
