Faraday was born on September 22, 1792 in South London, England to James and Margaret Faraday. His father, James, supported his family with his career as a blacksmith. However, James was in poor condition, and his health continued to deteriorate. In spite of James’ career, Faraday’s family had a low socioeconomic status and struggled to overcome their financial troubles. Consequently, Faraday received a fairly basic education, and “he showed little promise at school” (Cosmos). …show more content…
After a year of diligent work, he was promoted to the apprentice of George Riebau, a bookbinder. This gave Faraday access to hundreds of books, including those relating to both scientific and theological topics. The majority of Faraday’s knowledge of electricity originated from The Encyclopedia Britannica, while his knowledge of chemistry came from a six hundred book called Conversations on Chemistry. These books made him increasingly inquisitive, and he started to use his meager salary to purchase apparatus for scientific