Wealth or Science | John Tyndall on Michael Faraday

“While once conversing with Faraday on science, in its relations to commerce and litigation, he said to me, that at a certain period of his career, he was forced definitely to ask himself, and finally to decide whether he should make wealth or science the pursuit of his life. He could not serve both masters, and he was therefore compelled to choose between them. After the discovery of magnetoelectricity his fame was so noised abroad, that the commercial world would hardly have considered any remuneration too high for the aid of abilities like his. Even before he became so famous, he had done a little ‘professional business.’ This was the phrase he applied to his purely commercial work. His friend, Richard Phillips, for example, had induced him to undertake a number of analyses, which produced, in the year 1830, an addition to his income of more than a thousand pounds; and in 1831, a still greater addition. He had only to will it to raise in 1832 his professional business income to 5,000l. a year. Indeed, this is a wholly insufficient estimate of what he might, with ease, have realized annually during the last thirty years of his life. 

While restudying the Experimental Researches with reference to the present memoir, the conversation with Faraday here alluded to came to my recollection, and I sought to ascertain the period when the question, ‘wealth or science,’ had presented itself with such emphasis to his mind. I fixed upon the year 1831 or 1832, for it seemed beyond the range of human power to pursue science as he had done during the subsequent years, and to pursue commercial work at the same time. To test this conclusion, I asked permission to see his accounts, and on my own responsibility, I will state the result. In 1832, his professional business-income, instead of rising to 5,000l., or more, fell from 1,090l. 4s. to 155l. 9s. From this it fell with slight oscillations to 92l., in 1837, and to zero in 1838. Between 1839 and 1845, it never, except in one instance, exceeded 22l.; being for the most part much under this. The exceptional year referred to was that in which he and Sir Charles Lyell were engaged by Government to write a report on the Haswell Colliery explosion, and then his business income rose to 112l. From the end of 1845 to the day of his death, Faraday’s annual professional business income was exactly zero. Taking the duration of his life into account, this son of a blacksmith, and apprentice to a bookbinder, had to decide between a fortune of 150,000l. on the one side, and his endowered science on the other. He chose the latter and died a poor man. But his was the glory of holding aloft among the nations the scientific name of England for a period of forty years. The outward and visible signs of fame were also of less account to him than to most men. He had been loaded with scientific honors from all parts of the world. Without, I imagine, a dissentient voice, he was regarded as the prince of the physical investigators of the present age. The highest scientific position in this country he had, however, never filled. When the late excellent and lamented Lord Wrottesley resigned the presidency of the Royal Society, a deputation from the council, consisting of his Lordship, Mr. Grove, and Mr. Gassiot, waited upon Faraday, to urge him to accept the president’s chair. All that argument or friendly persuasion could do was done to induce him to yield to the wishes of the council, which was also the unanimous wish of scientific men. A knowledge of the quickness of his own nature had induced in Faraday the habit of requiring an interval of reflection, before he decided upon any question of importance. In the present instance he followed his usual habit and begged for a little time. On the following morning, I went up to his room, and said on entering that I had come to him with some anxiety of mind. He demanded its cause, and I responded: ‘lest you should have decided against the wishes of the deputation that waited on you yesterday.’ ‘You would not urge me to undertake this responsibility,’ he said. ‘I not only urge you’, was my reply, ‘but I consider it your bounden duty to accept it.’ He spoke of the labor that it would involve; urged that it was not in his nature to take things easy; and that if he became president, he would surely have to stir many new questions, and agitate for some changes. I said that in such cases he would find himself supported by the youth and strength of the Royal Society. This, however, did not seem to satisfy him. Mrs. Faraday came into the room, and he appealed to her. Her decision was adverse, and I deprecated her decision. ‘Tyndall’, he said at length, ‘I must remain plain Michael Faraday to the last; and let me now tell you, that if I accepted the honor which the Royal Society desires to confer upon me, I would not answer for the integrity of my intellect for a single year.’ I urged him no more, and Lord Wrottesley had a most worthy successor in Sir Benjamin Brodie.”

Excerpted from

Faraday as a Discoverer by Tyndall, John/ publication date 1868. Online at archive.org

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