360Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday was an English scientist, the son of a blacksmith, who left school at 13. In 1831 he discovered electromagnetic induction, the principle behind every electric generator and transformer, and built the first generator. He also made the first electric motor, and his popular Christmas Lectures for young people at the Royal Institution still continue today.
Faraday became an apprentice bookbinder and educated himself by reading the books he bound. After attending lectures by the chemist Humphry Davy, he became Davy's assistant at the Royal Institution in London.
Besides electricity and magnetism, he discovered benzene and laws of electrolysis. He turned down a knighthood and remained modest all his life. The farad, a unit of electrical capacitance, is named after him.