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Michael Faraday from a photograph by John Watkins, British Library

Michael Faraday (Newington Butts, Surrey, 22 September 1791 – Hampton Court, Surrey, 25 August 1867) was the son of a blacksmith who became one of the most famous scientists of the 19th century.

He was sent to a local school to learn how to read and write. A local vicar paid for this, seeing his obvious intelligence. Faraday became the greatest experimental physicist of the nineteenth century.