The Discovery of Benzene

Abstract

IT is a fact not generally known that Faraday's early work at the Royal Institution was mainly of a purely chemical character and that it was not until later, about 1831, that he took up the study of electricity and magnetism, the branch of physics in which his more famous discoveries were made and with which his name is usually associated in the public mind. It is evident, of course, that this bent towards the chemical side of science was determined by his early association with Sir Humphry Davy, for Faraday has left abundant records illustrating the influence Davy's lectures and personality had on him. He seems to have first attended these lectures in 1812 when, as a youth of twenty-one, he was still serving as apprentice to Mr. George Riebau, a bookseller in Blandford Street; later he sent Davy a copy of the notes he had taken, together with a letter in which he expressed a wish to abandon trade and adopt a scientific career. It was well for posterity that this letter did not meet the same fate as that of a similar one sent to Sir Joseph Banks, then president of the Royal Society, which remained unanswered; for Davy sent a kindly and encouraging reply which not only led to an interview between them, but afterwards to the offer of a post as assistant at the Royal Institution, the salary being 255. a week with the use of two rooms at the top of the house; the minute of the Managers recording this appointment is dated March i, 1813. Faraday did not, however, remain long at the Institution, for on Sir Humphry Davy relinquishing his appointment as professor of chemistry in 1813, Faraday accompanied him as secretary during a tour through Europe which occupied the next eighteen months.