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New Dictionary of Scientific Biography ndsb_fmv3 10/2/07 8:36 AM Page II Published by special arrangement with the American Council of Learned Societies The American Council of Learned Societies, organized in 1919 for the purpose of advancing the study of the humanities and of the humanistic aspects of the social sciences, is a nonprofit federation comprising thirty-three national scholarly groups. The Council represents the humanities in the United States in the International Union of Academies, provides fellowships and grants-in-aid, supports research-and-planning conferences and symposia, and sponsers special projects and scholarly publications. MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS American Philosophical Society, 1743 Society of Architectural Historians, 1940 American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1780 Association for Asian Studies, 1941 American Antiquarian Society, 1812 American Society for Aesthetics, 1942 American Oriental Society, 1842 American Association for the Advancement of American Numismatic Society, 1858 Slavic Studies, 1948 American Philological Association, 1869 American Studies Association, 1950 Archaeological Institute of America, 1879 Metaphysical Society of America, 1950 Society of Biblical Literature, 1880 North American Conference on British Studies, Modern Language Association of America, 1883 1950 American Historical Association, 1884 American Society of Comparative Law, 1951 American Economic Association, 1885 Renaissance Society of America, 1954 American Folklore Society, 1888 Society for Ethnomusicology, 1955 American Society of Church History, 1888 Society for French Historical Studies, 1956 American Dialect Society, 1889 International Center of Medieval Art, 1956 American Psychological Association, 1892 American Society for Legal History, 1956 Association of American Law Schools, 1900 American Philosophical Association, 1900 American Society for Theatre Research, 1956 American Schools of Oriental Research, 1900 African Studies Association, 1957 American Anthropological Association, 1902 Society for the History of Technology, 1958 American Political Science Association, 1903 Society for Cinema and Media Studies, 1959 Bibliographical Society of America, 1904 American Comparative Literature Association, Association of American Geographers, 1904 1960 Hispanic Society of America, 1904 Law and Society Association, 1964 American Sociological Association, 1905 Middle East Studies Association of North America, American Society of International Law, 1906 1966 Organization of American Historians, 1907 Latin American Studies Association, 1966 American Academy of Religion, 1909 Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies, College Forum of the National Council of Teachers 1968 of English, 1911 American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies, Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian 1969 Study, 1911 Association for Jewish Studies, 1969 College Art Association, 1912 Sixteenth Century Society and Conference, 1970 National Communication Association, 1914 Society for American Music, 1975 History of Science Society, 1924 Dictionary Society of North America, 1975 Linguistic Society of America, 1924 Medieval Academy of America, 1925 German Studies Association, 1976 American Association for the History of Medicine, American Society for Environmental History, 1976 1925 Society for Music Theory, 1977 American Musicological Society, 1934 National Council on Public History, 1979 Economic History Association, 1940 Society of Dance History Scholars, 1979 ndsb_fmv3 10/2/07 8:36 AM Page III New Dictionary of Scientific Biography VOLUME 3 FAIREY–HYPATIA Noretta Koertge EDITOR IN CHIEF ndsb_fmv3 10/2/07 8:36 AM Page IV New Dictionary of Scientific Biography Noretta Koertge © 2008 Gale Group For permission to use material from the prod- While every effort has been made to secure uct, submit your request via the Web at permission to reprint material and to ensure Thomson and Star Logo are trademarks and http://www.gale-edit.com/permissions, or you the reliability of the information presented in Gale is a registered trademark used herein may download our Permissions Request form this publication, Gale Group neither guaran- under license. and submit your request by fax or mail to: tees the accuracy of the data contained herein nor assumes any responsibility for errors, For more information, contact: Permissions Department omissions, or discrepancies. 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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA New dictionary of scientific biography / Noretta Koertge, editor in chief. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-684-31320-7 (set : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-684-31321-4 (vol. 1 : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-684-31322-1 (vol. 2 : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-684-31323-8 (vol. 3 : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-684-31324-5 (vol. 4 : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-684-31325-2 (vol. 5 : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-684-31326-9 (vol. 6 : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-684-31327-6 (vol. 7 : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-684-31328-3 (vol. 8 : alk. paper) 1. Scientists—Biography—Dictionaries. I. Koertge, Noretta. Q141.N45 2008 509.2'2—dc22 [B] 2007031384 ndsb_fmv3 10/2/07 8:36 AM Page V Editorial Board EDITOR IN CHIEF Noretta Koertge Indiana University, Department of History and Philosophy of Science ADVISORY COMMITTEE William Bechtel James Capshew David L. Hull Jane Maienschein John Norton Eric R. Scerri Brian Skyrms Michael M. Sokal Spencer Weart SUBJECT EDITORS William Bechtel James H. Capshew Matthew Goodrum University of California, San Diego, Indiana University at Bloomington, Virginia Tech, Department of Science Department of Philosophy and Department of History and and Technology in Society Science Studies Program Philosophy of Science PALEOANTHROPOLOGY LIFE SCIENCES PSYCHOLOGY Jeremy Gray Stephen Bocking Steven J. Dick The Open University, United Trent University, Ontario, Environmental and Resource Studies National Aeronautics and Space Kingdom, Department of Mathematics Program Administration MATHEMATICS AND LOGIC ECOLOGY SPACE SCIENCE Valerie Gray Hardcastle James Fleming Theodore Brown University of Cincinnati, McMicken Colby College, Science, Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana- College of Arts and Sciences and Society Program Champaign, Department of Chemistry and Beckman Institute METEOROLOGY, HYDROLOGY, COGNITIVE AND CHEMISTRY OCEANOGRAPHY NEUROSCIENCE Lillian Hoddeson Richard Burkhardt Gregory A. Good University of Illinois at Urbana- West Virginia University, Department University of Illiniois at Urbana- Champaign, Department of History of History Champaign, Department of History ANIMAL BEHAVIOR GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS PHYSICS ndsb_fmv3 10/2/07 8:36 AM Page VI Editorial Board Ernst Homburg Jane Maienschein Robert Smith Universiteit Maastricht, The Arizona State University, School of University of Alberta, Department of Netherlands, Department of History Life Sciences, Center for Biology and History and Classics CHEMISTRY Society ASTRONOMY AND LIFE SCIENCES David L. Hull ASTROPHYSICS Northwestern University, Department Elizabeth Paris of Philosophy Independent Scholar Stephen Weininger LIFE SCIENCES PHYSICS Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Helge Kragh Carsten Reinhardt Department of Chemistry and University of Aarhus, Denmark, Steno University of Bielefeld, Germany, Biochemistry Department for Studies of Science and Institute for Science and Technology CHEMISTRY Science Education Studies COSMOLOGY CHEMISTRY Paul Weirich Michael S. Mahoney John Rigden University of Missouri-Columbia, Princeton University, Department of Washington University in St. Louis, Computer Science Department of Physics Department of Philosophy COMPUTER SCIENCE PHYSICS DECISION AND GAME THEORY CONSULTING EDITORS Garland E. Allen Alexander Jones Lynn Nyhart Washington University, St. Louis, University of Toronto, Department of University of Wisconsin at Madison, Department of Biology Classics Department of the History of Science Domenico Bertoloni Meli William Newman Juergen Renn Indiana University, Center for the Indiana University, Department of Max Planck Institute for the History History of Medicine History and Philosophy of Science of Science, Berlin Craig Fraser Vivian Nutton University of Toronto, Institute for the University College London, Wellcome Johannes M. M. H. Thijssen History and Philosophy of Science and Trust Centre for the History of Radboud University Nijmegen, Technology Medicine Faculty of Philosophy ASSISTANT TO THE EDITOR IN CHIEF Anne Mylott Indiana University, Department of History and Philosophy of Science VI NEW DICTIONARY OF SCIENTIFIC BIOGRAPHY ndsbv3_F 9/10/07 3:35 PM Page 1 F FAIREY, JOHN been founded in 1799 as a philanthropic initiative for improving the scientific education of craftsmen and prac- SEEFarey, John. titioners, but quickly developed into a meeting point for the middle and upper class. Its finances depended largely on the income of the public lectures it offered, and hence on finding lecturers that attracted a substantial audience. FARADAY, MICHAEL (b. Newington Butts, In that respect, Faraday was as great a success as Humphry Surrey [now London], England, 22 September 1791, d. Davy had been before him. The Friday evening and the Hampton Green Court, Middlesex, England, 25 August Christmas juvenile lecture series (founded in 1826 and 1867), electricity and magnetism, chemistry. For the origi- 1827, respectively) were essentially his creation and much nal article on Faraday see DSB,vol. 4. shaped by him. Faraday’s contributions to electricity and magnetism Pushed by Davy, and well beyond the needs of lectur- shaped nineteenth-century physics fundamentally, opened ing, the Royal Institution had installed a well-equipped the possibility of a wider use of electric power, and laid the laboratory and a library, in a period when the very idea of origin of field theory. Both for his contemporaries and for such laboratories was new and just starting to be realized. modern science studies, his experimental approach and The Royal Institution’s facility, well apt for cutting-edge unorthodox concepts have been challenging. At his time, research, developed into one of the best-equipped labora- his fame rested as much on his lecturing and counseling in tories of the period, competing with places such as the public service as on his research. Paris École Polytechnique. Faraday thus had unrestricted Since the 1980s, Faraday studies have shifted their access to a unique resource of experimental research, a sit- focus from Faraday’s ideas, experimental discoveries, and uation that he himself strongly endorsed and of which he intellectual influences toward the practice of his life, took significant advantage. Both the lecture hall (where he research, and religion. As a result, a new picture has spent much time) and the apartment he shared with his emerged, and it has become clear that the degree to which wife Sarah were in the Royal Institution’s building, hence Faraday’s research was preshaped by philosophical ideas he could easily switch between work and home, research about the nature of matter and force had been consider- and lecturing, at least as long he was not interrupted by ably overestimated. This update article focuses on how his one of the many visitors calling for information. Of generation of knowledge—experimental, practical, con- course, this was not a situation without tensions. Faraday’s ceptual, theoretical—was connected to, and shaped by, income at the Royal Institution was certainly not ade- the other aspects of his life. quate, given the benefits he provided for the institution. However, he lived a modest life, even at the height of his Working in the Royal Institution. Faraday’s lifelong fame, and gave the surplus mostly to charity. Nevertheless, working site, the Royal Institution of Great Britain, had his continued (and well-paid) teaching at the Royal Mili- NEW DICTIONARY OF SCIENTIFIC BIOGRAPHY 1 ndsbv3_F 9/10/07 3:35 PM Page 2 Faraday Faraday tary Academy at Woolwich for more than two decades was, among others, a deliberate step to lessen his financial dependence on one single institution with insecure financial standing. Moreover, combining living and work in one and the same house for a whole life was not necessar- ily a favorable arrangement. That Faraday was able to turn it into great success had also to do with the fact that his life had, besides work, also a second focus: his being part of the Sandemanian community—a life that took place outside the Royal Institution and in which, contrasted to his research and lecturing, Sarah took part equally. To a far larger extent than hitherto realized, Faraday was active in public service. More than 10 percent of all of his correspondence deals with lighthouses alone, stem- ming from his work for Trinity House (from 1836 on). He was scientific adviser to the Admiralty, the Home Office, the Board of Trade, the Office of Woods and Forests, and the Board of Ordnance. These projects ranged from a gunpowder factory explosion to conserva- tion issues of works of art. His inquiry into the devastat- ing explosion at Haswell Colliery (1844) was a key event in the relationship of science and politics and in labor history—it is cited by Friedrich Engels for example. The situation at the Royal Institution (which he himself had considerably shaped and stabilized), his enormous success as a public lecturer and scientific advisor, and his religious life combined to form a peculiar and very specific Michael Faraday. Michael Faraday, circa 1865. HULTON constellation—a constellation that gave him much inner ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES. and outer stability and relieved him to a considerable degree from the compulsion of scientific competition. This was an important element of his capacity to pursue variation of experimental parameters, with the goal of his own ideas and conceptualizations, even through long finding constant correlations and establishing laws. periods of nonresponse or rejection from the academic Explaining a specific effect meant to him, first of all, plac- environment. ing it in a wider surrounding of related effects, then “deducing” one from another by building a chain of Experimenting. Faraday is most known as an experi- experimental phenomena, or, as he said, “putting facts menter. Indeed, those achievements that made him closely together.” Sometimes this required framing new famous in his time rely on experiments, be it electromag- concepts, or transferring existing ones into a totally new netic rotation (1821), the liquefaction of gases (1823), the context, as in the case of magnetic curves. discovery of benzene (1825), electromagnetic induction Faraday had a laboratory assistant, the former (1831), the identity of various electricities (1833), the Sergeant Charles Anderson, but it seems that in his con- laws of electrolysis (1834), the magneto-optical effect siderations about the meaning and ordering of experimen- (1845), or diamagnetism (1845–1846). Contrasting to tal results, and the planning of further experiments, he the older picture of Faraday’s experiments being guided by worked essentially alone. When other scientists visited speculative views on matter and force, new studies of his him in the laboratory, he would show them his ready experimental practice by David Gooding, Friedrich results, but not discuss ongoing research—the same holds Steinle, and Ryan D. Tweney have drawn quite a different for his well-documented and extensive correspondence. picture. The core of his experimental approach was never individual, single experiments but always extended exper- Faraday’s experimental approach was intimately imental series—a point that is easily eclipsed when focus- linked to his practice of record keeping. He probably put ing on his prominent discoveries. But these discoveries are down notes right in the laboratory, but edited them in only understandable as outcomes of those experimental clear writing afterward (typically on a daily basis), num- series. The main experimental procedure was a systematic bered each entry for later reference, and eventually bound 2 NEW DICTIONARY OF SCIENTIFIC BIOGRAPHY ndsbv3_F 9/10/07 3:35 PM Page 3 Faraday Faraday these notes into books. In composing his papers for publication, he would often take directly the wording and the figures of his notebook. As the number of experiments increased greatly over the years, he started to work on indices and superindices to enable later retrieval. And even N in later years he would still come back to experiments A P B made more than a decade earlier. Such a conscious dealing with enormous amounts of experimental records was extraordinary at his time; see, for example, the contrasting case of Ampère. Theorizing. Faraday’s success as an experimentalist has Figure 1. To grasp the results of his numerous induction long overshadowed his efforts and achievements in theo- experiments (1831/32) in a law, Faraday used “magnetic rizing and conceptualizing. But his work was at least as curves” as a refererence frame. Despite his own success in strongly focused on understanding and ordering experi- formulating a law, the concept came to visibility only in the mental outcomes as on obtaining new experimental 1860s when Maxwell gave those “lines of force” a mathematical effects. His approach focused more on formulating laws form. and on fundamental concepts than on searching for hidden entities that would provide causal explanations. More than others, he was ready to question fundamental con- as a convenient tool to express the spatial distribution of cepts, such as electric current, electric attraction, and mag- magnetic force. Rather than being an “embarrassment” for netic polarity, and to propose new concepts, such as Faraday, as Leslie Pearce Williams suggests in the original electromagnetic rotation as an elementary effect, magnetic DSBarticle, this peculiar status of lines of force lay at the and electric curves (later to be renamed lines of force), spe- core of his approach. Faraday kept that cautious attitude cific capacity, dia- and paramagnetism, and of course elec- for decades, even when conceiving the curves as movable tric and magnetic fields. In some cases he consulted other (1832), introducing electric lines of force (1838), formu- scholars (most notably William Whewell) for appropriate lating diamagnetic behavior in terms of lines of force words in order to keep the new concepts as neutral as pos- (1848), or finally developing a general theory of magnet- sible with respect to explanatory theories. Only when a ism in terms of lines of force (1850). Only in 1851, at a firm experimental and conceptual foundation was stage when he oversaw a huge domain of electromagnetic achieved, was he ready to put real effort into the question effects, did he drop his reluctance and state that there of hidden causes, such as the theory of electrolysis or of probably was more to lines of force than just being descrip- polarization. tive tools: their successful application comprised much The concepts thus created were “empirically satu- wider realms than any other concept of electrodynamics. rated,” in the sense that Faraday formed and developed them with an ever-growing body of experimental results Religion. Throughout his life, and while living in the in mind, for which they should enable a formulation of Royal Institution’s building, Faraday kept apart his profes- regularities and laws. In face of new experimental evi- sional and private life. The latter was most intensely dence, he was ready to a very high degree to revise and shaped by his adherence to the Sandemanian sect, a strict refine those concepts again and again, with the result that religious group that comprised not more than four hun- in the end they found a very precise formulation, though dred members in England and Scotland in his time. Fara- not in mathematical language. That he was able to form day’s confession of faith in 1821 was certainly one of the such unconventional concepts at all had to do with his most important moments of his life. Like all members of noncommitment to any established school of physical that community, Faraday spent much time and effort with thinking, and with his deep feeling of the responsibility to services, gatherings, and duties such as caring for the sick fit his concepts to nature. At the same time, it was exactly or preaching, often outside London. His important social this character of the concepts that made them appear connections were more or less completely located within weird for most of his contemporaries, because they did the community and formed strong ties. It is indicative, for not resonate with the established body of knowledge of example, that while he generally refused to write support the period. letters for anyone for positions, he deviated from this rule Ever since his first use of “magnetic curves” in 1831 in the case of Sandemanian brethren. His funeral, on his for the induction law, he emphasized he was not claiming own wish, and despite his wide fame, took place only physical reality of these curves, but rather was using them within a small circle of Sandemanians. NEW DICTIONARY OF SCIENTIFIC BIOGRAPHY 3 ndsbv3_F 9/10/07 3:35 PM Page 4 Faraday Faraday Both his personal faith and the Sandemanian com- A third aspect of Faraday’s impact has received less munity life gave Faraday a considerable degree of personal attention. While Faraday never formulated anything like a stability. Correspondingly, however, instabilities within methodology, his peculiar approach was quite visible and the Sandemanian community (such as his temporary would eventually become subject of methodological con- exclusion in 1844) affected him profoundly and made siderations. The growing insight into the inadequacy of him existentially suffer, in sharp contrast to problems and the search for the “hidden levers and screws” of nature lack of resonance in his scientific surroundings. Moreover, during the last decades of the nineteenth century was in his religion provided him with a specific attitude toward part stimulated by the complex dispute of Weberian, Neu- mannian, and Faraday-Maxwellian electrodynamics. A researching nature. In his 1854 lecture “Mental Educa- major exponent of that changing ideal of knowledge, Her- tion,” he emphasized the importance of humility in the mann von Helmholtz, explicitly attributed his own turn face of God’s creation. The extraordinary degree to which away from the search for hidden mechanisms to his read- he kept his concepts and theoretical ideas open for revi- ing of Faraday. Even in recent attempts to widen the sion by further experience (dubbed “Negative capability” understanding of experimental practice in general, Fara- by Elspeth Crawford), and also his persistence in keeping day figures as a prominent example and unique resource his unconventional ideas, can well be understood as his because of his peculiar productivity, the unique availabil- own way of realizing that virtue. ity of sources that enable insight into his everyday practice, and the specific experimental approach that does not Impact. Faraday’s impact on research in electrodynamics fit the standard view of experiment. (and physics in general) was immense. From 1830 on, he was the one to put challenges and create the “hot topics” in SUPPLEMENTARY BIBLIOGRAPHY electrodynamics for two and a half decades: rotation, induction, specific capacity, magneto-optical effect, dia- The Royal Institution of Great Britain, the Royal Society, the Guildhall Library, and the Institution of Engineering and magnetism, and lines of force. The continuing series of Technology keep much archival material (manuscripts, lecture Faraday’s papers was translated into various languages on a notes, and so forth), all of which has been microfilmed and regular basis. However, the reception was split in a charac- stored on compact disc, available from Microform Academic, teristic way: While his experimental results were highly Wakefield, United Kingdom. praised, his conceptual approach met with silence or criti- cism. This had partly to do with his total lack of mathe- WORKS BY FARADAY matical education in a period when physics became Faraday’s Diary: Being the Various Philosophical Notes of strongly mathematized and partly with his uneasy way of Experimental Investigation Made by Michael Faraday during the Years 1820–1862 and Bequeathed by Him to the Royal presenting his results, switching between meticulous exper- Institution of Great Britain. Edited by Thomas Martin. imental descriptions and general considerations. The London: G. Bell, 1932–1936. largest obstacle, however, was the unconventional charac- Experimental Researches in Electricity. New York: Dover, 1965. ter of some of his new concepts. Wilhelm Weber, for exam- Originally published 1839–1855. ple, in his 1845 Maassbestimmungen, mentioned Faraday as Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics. London: Taylor a gifted experimentalist and discoverer of the induction & Francis, 1991. Originally published in 1859. effect, but found there was no law of induction. Obviously The Correspondence of Michael Faraday. 4 vols. Edited by Frank he did not regard Faraday’s induction law of 1832 as some- A.J.L. James. London: Institution of Electrical Engineers, thing to be considered seriously—it was formulated in 1991–. Complete edition, with excellent comments and introduction. terms of magnetic curves and hence probably too far from Curiosity Perfectly Satisfyed: Faraday’s Travels in Europe anything a physicist of the time could deal with. 1813–1815. Edited by Brian Bowers and Lenore Symons. The second half of the century saw the development IEE History of Technology Series, 16. London: Peter of field-theory in mathematical form. It is important to Peregrinus, 1991. Faraday’s notebook of the “Continental note that what James Clerk Maxwell set out to mathema- Tour.” tize was not specific effects, domains, or laws, but the con- Michael Faraday’s “Chemical Notes, Hints, Suggestions and Objects cept of lines of force, as he took it from Faraday. The of Pursuit” of 1822. Edited by Ryan D. Tweney and David Gooding. IEE History of Technology Series, 17. London: striking historical observation that Maxwell’s success in Peter Peregrinus, 1991. mathematizing the concept provided a comprehensive theory of a vast range of electrodynamic effects, without OTHER SOURCES having discussed that variety of effects in detail, can be Berman, Morris. Social Change and Scientific Organization: The understood just by highlighting the “empirically satu- Royal Institution, 1799–1844. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University rated” and highly precise character of Faraday’s concepts. Press, 1978. 4 NEW DICTIONARY OF SCIENTIFIC BIOGRAPHY