COILS, MAGNETS AND RINGS: Michael Faraday's World

by Nancy Veglahn ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 14, 1976

Michael Faraday was always asking questions."" Veglahn maintains a high human interest from the very first sentence, without resorting to any extraneous fictionalized episodes but simply by conveying Faraday's own unbounded curiosity and intense absorption in his pursuit of answers. Unobtrusive specifics of time and place provide context enough--young Michael, for example, ""delivered"" newspapers, waiting at each house for the papers to be read and collecting a small rental as his customers could not afford to buy them outright. But mostly this takes place in Faraday's mind where every sight and experience triggers questions; in the bookbinding shop where his master allows the young apprentice to set up a crude laboratory and read about electricity in the encyclopedia that comes in for repair; and especially at the Royal Institute where he begins at 22 as Sir Humphry Davy's assistant, delivers the hugely popular Christmas lectures to London children, and goes on to discoveries in electromagnetism that made the electric motor possible. For the nitty gritty on the experiments and their application children should look elsewhere, but Faraday's investigative personality makes him an activating role model and Veglahn's story could be an engaging supplement to classroom study.

Pub Date: Dec. 14, 1976

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1976

Categories: NONFICTION