Michael Faraday. Caricature of the British physicist and chemist Michael Faraday (1791-1867), holding a magnet to represent his work on electromagnetism. Faraday is best known for his development of the electric motor and the dynamo, the forerunner of all modern electrical power generators. He also worked in chemistry, liquefying several gases, discovering benzene, inventing the system of oxidation numbers for elements and doing pioneering early work in electrochemistry.