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for printing| Michael Faraday did not directly contribute to
mathematics so should not really qualify to have his biography
in this archive. However he was such a major figure and his
science had such a large impact on the work of those developing
mathematical theories that it is proper that he is included. We
say more about this below. Faraday's father, James Faraday, was
a blacksmith who came from Yorkshire in the north of England
while his mother Margaret Hastwell, also from the north of
England, was the daughter of a farmer. Early in 1791 James and
Margaret moved to Newington Butts, which was then a village
outside London, where James hoped that work was more plentiful.
They already had two children, a boy Robert and a girl, before
they moved to Newington Butts and Michael was born only a few
months after their move. Work was not easy to find and the
family moved