Michael Faraday. Inventor of The Faraday Cage – Wikipedia
Michael Faraday FRS (/ˈfærədeɪ, –di/; 22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867) was an English scientist who contributed to the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism and electrolysis. Although Faraday received little formal education, as a self-made man, he was one of the most influential scientists in history.[1] It was by his research on the magnetic field around a conductor carrying a direct current that Faraday established the concept of the electromagnetic field in physics. Faraday also established that magnetism could affect rays of light and that there was an underlying relationship between the two phenomena.[2][3] He similarly discovered the principles of electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism, and the laws of electrolysis. His inventions of electromagnetic rotary devices formed the foundation of electric motor technology, and it was largely due to his efforts that electricity became practical for use in technology.[4]
Faraday cage
In his work on static electricity, Faraday’s ice pail experiment demonstrated that the charge resided only on the exterior of a charged conductor, and exterior charge had no influence on anything enclosed within a conductor. This is because the exterior charges redistribute such that the interior fields emanating from them cancel one another. This shielding effect is used in what is now known as a Faraday cage.[57] In January 1836, Faraday had put a wooden frame, 12 ft square, on four glass supports and added paper walls and wire mesh. He then stepped inside and electrified it. When he stepped out of his electrified cage, Faraday had shown that electricity was a force, not an imponderable fluid as was believed at the time.[4]
Michael Faraday – Encarta
In 1831 he was able to return to his electrical researches and in that year discovered electromagnetic induction. In this work, Faraday effectively invented the first electric transformer and generator. This work commenced a remarkable decade for him in which, among other things, he rewrote the theory of electrochemistry (coining in the process words such as electrode, anode, cathode, ion, etc., and establishing his laws of electrolysis), and built, in 1836, the Faraday Cage, which showed that measurements of electric charge depended on the electrical state of the observer. This observation led Faraday to develop his theory that electricity was the result of induction between contiguous particles rather than a fluid as previously supposed. In the 1840s he extended his scepticism of scientific theories by arguing against both the existence of chemical atoms and of the luminiferous ether. These views were supported by his discovery of the magneto-optical effect and diamagnetism in 1845, and culminated in the 1850s with his establishment of the field theory of electromagnetism which, when mathematized by Lord Kelvin and James Clerk Maxwell, became and remains one of the cornerstones of physics.