3

546 HARPER'S MAGAZINE
The answer is interesting. Michael phasize the fact that the part played by
Faraday's father was a blacksmith; science in making war more destructive
Michael himself was apprenticed to a and more horrible was an unconscious
bookbinder. In 1812, when he was al- and unintended by-product of scientific
ready twenty-one years of age, a friend activity. Lord Rayleigh, president of
took him to the Royal Institution where the British Association for the Advance-
he heard Sir Humphrey Davy deliver ment of Science, in a recent address
four lectures on chemical subjects. He points out in detail how the folly of man,
kept notes and sent a copy of them to not the intention of the scientists, is re-
Davy. The very next year, 1813, he sponsible for the destructive use of the
became an assistant in Davy's laboratory, agents employed in modern warfare.
working on chemical problems. Two The innocent study of the chemistry of
years later he accompanied Davy on a carbon compounds, which has led to
trip to the Continent. In 1825, when infinite beneficial results, showed that the
he was thirty-four years of age, he became action of nitric acid on substances like
Director of the Laboratory of the Royal benzene, glycerine, cellulose, etc., re-
Institution where he spent fifty-four years sulted not only in the beneficent aniline
of his life. dye industry but in the creation of nitro-
Faraday's interest soon shifted from glycerine, which has uses good and bad.
chemistry to electricity and magnetism, Somewhat later Alfred Nobel, turning to
to which he devoted the rest of his active the same subject, showed that by mixing
life. Important but puzzling work in nitro-glycerine with other substances,
this field had been previously accom- solid explosives which could be safely
plished by Oersted, Ampere, and Wol- handled could be produced-among
laston. Faraday cleared away the diffi- others, dynamite. It is to dynamite that
culties which they had left unsolved and we owe our progress in mining, in the
by 1841 had succeeded in the task of in- making of such railroad tunnels as those
duction of the electric current. Four which now pierce the Alps and other
years later a second and equally brilliant mountain ranges; but of course dynamite
epoch in his career opened when he dis- has been abused by politicians and sol-
covered the effect of magnetism on polar- diers. Scientists are, however, no more
ized light. His earlier discoveries have to blame than they are to blame for an
led to the infinite number of practical earthquake or a flood. The same thing
applications by means of which electricity can be said of poison gas. Pliny was
has lightened the burdens and increased killed by breathing sulphur dioxide in
the opportunities of modern life. His the eruption of Vesuvius almost two
later discoveries have thus far been less thousand years ago. Chlorine was not
prolific of practical results. What dif- isolated by scientists for warlike purposes,
ference did this make to Faraday? Not and the same is true of mustard gas.
the least. At no period of his unmatched These substances could be limited to
career was he interested in utility. He beneficent use, but when the airplane
was absorbed in disentangling the riddles was perfected, men whose hearts were
of the universe, at first chemical riddles, poisoned and whose brains were addled
in later periods, physical riddles. As far perceived that the airplane, an innocent
as he cared, the question of utility was invention, the result of long disinterested
never raised. Any suspicion of utility and scientific effort, could be made an
would have restricted his restless curi- instrument of destruction, of which no
osity. In the end, utility resulted, but it one had ever dreamed and at which no
was never a criterion to which his cease- one had ever deliberately aimed.
less experimentation could be subjected. In the domain of higher mathematics
In the atmosphere which envelopes the almost innumerable instances can be
world to-day it is perhaps timely to em- cited. For example, the most abstruse

3

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

3

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

3

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

546 HARPER'S MAGAZINE

You might also like