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Hello, near Waterloo Bridge in London, there's a rather unusual bronze statue of a man.

It was unveiled in the 1980s and it portrays not a king, a general or a politician, but a scientist.

The figure is Michael Faraday. The experiments he conducted

eventually transformed the way we live. Born in 1791 his research into the

relationship between electricity and magnetism led to the development of the

electric generator and the electric motor. Modern power generation is based on the

work he did. During his life he became the most famous scientist in the country and in 1931 on the centina of his greatest discovery,

the Royal Albert Hall was devoted to a huge exhibition about him and electricity.

With me to discuss the life and achievements of Michael Faraday are Jeffrey Kanta, Professor Emeritus of the History of Science at the University of Leeds, Frank James, Professor of the History of Science at the Royal Institution, and Laura Hertz, Professor of Physics

at the University of Oxford. Jeffrey Counter, what do we know about Faraday's childhood and early education?

There's very little documentary evidence relating to that, but perhaps the one important

thing is the family's social position that he was the son of a blacksmith and therefore grew up in a poor but respectable household.

The family actually came from Clapham in North Yorkshire and had moved to London very shortly before Faraday's birth.

The reason for moving, one would guess, is for economic reasons.

There's a great deal of poverty in Yorkshire at the time, and the father hoped to provide better for his family by coming to London.

Unfortunately, however, he seems to have been ill or had an accident and his working life was rather cut short.

But this does mean that Faraday grew up in relative poverty.

When he was 13 he was apprenticed to a bookbinder named George Reboo and the choice of bookbinding

...