Category Science

          The great scientist Sir Humphry Davy was once asked by a friend to name his greatest discovery to which he replied ‘Michael Faraday’. Faraday was then working as his assistant. Later his contributions in the field of electromagnetism and electrochemistry led to the invention of many things including dynamo and motor.

          Born in 1791 in a poor blacksmith family, Faraday began his career at the age of thirteen as an errand boy in a bookshop and moved along the pavements of London carrying and delivering newspapers. But his curious and inquisitive mind accompanied by hard work enabled him to reach great heights. His considerate employer in the bookshop taught him the art of book production. Thus Faraday found an access to books and devoted his spare time to reading. He had always the inherent desire to achieve something great.

          One day Faraday got the opportunity to attend a lecture by Sir Humphry Davy. Faraday noted down his lectures and sent them to Sir Humphry along with suitable diagrams. In return Sir Humphry offered him the post of a laboratory assistant and Faraday served him for a long time.

          When Faraday got the opportunity to work on his own, his genius flourished. Chemistry was his first love and he invented stainless steel, liquid chlorine, new kinds of optical glasses, benzene etc. he also propounded the laws of electrolysis. He got instant fame when he ventured into the field of electricity. Oersted had earlier discovered that electricity could produce magnetic effects but Faraday started thinking of the reverse phenomenon. He thought if electricity could produce magnetic effects then there must be a way for magnetism to produce electricity. Later he invented the ‘magneto electric machine’ that had a spinning disk between the poles of a magnet which became the forerunner of a dynamo. A dynamo converts mechanical energy into electrical energy. It consists of a powerful magnet and in between the poles of it a suitable conductor (a coil) is rotated. The mechanical energy generated by rotation is thus converted into an electric current in the coil.

          Faraday could not make money out of his inventions as he never bothered for money. Though at some stage of his life he earned a lot of money, he remained poor in his later days. He was generous, charitable and deeply religious. He died in 1867. 

          Today, medical sciences have become so advanced that many limbs of the body are made artificially and replaced by the competent surgeons. This advancement has come to this stage after a long process. The first person who made the artificial limbs was a French surgeon named Ambroise Pare (1510 – 1590).

          In the 1500s, surgery was not practiced by physicians but it was one of the specialties of the hair cutting profession. As a young boy Pare had the barber’s training. In 1541 he became a barber surgeon in Army. Eventually he became surgeon to the French king Henry II and to the king’s three sons who later succeeded him.

          Ambroise Pare was a very popular surgeon largely because he introduced many improvements in the existing methods. For example, he gave up the practice of cauterizing wounds with boiling oil; instead he tied off the exposed arteries and covered the wounds with simple dressings. 

          Pare developed several artificial limbs such as arms and hands. He made an arm that could be bent of the elbow and a hand with movable fingers. Even today Pare is considered as the first person to devise artificial limbs.

          Today we have modern artificial legs and muscle activated electric arms driven by electric motors. They have become very useful for the patients who have lost their natural limbs.