Faraday delivering a Christmas Lecture at the Royal Institution,1856. Between 1827 and 1860 at the Royal Institution in London, he gave a series of 19 Christmas lectures for young people. The objective of his Christmas lectures was to present science to the general public in the hopes of inspiring them and generating revenue for the Royal Institution. Michael Faraday (September 22, 1791 - August 25, 1867) was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. He experimented with electricity and magnetism, proposing that magnetism was a circular force. He also discovered magnetic optical rotation, electromagnetic induction, invented the dynamo, perfected the Bunsen burner, and formulated the second law of electrolysis. Author of "Chemical Manipulation", Faraday was self-trained and contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry after an apprenticeship Davy's lab. The farad (F) is named after him. As a chemist, Faraday discovered benzene, investigated the clathrate hydrate of chlorine, invented the system of oxidation numbers, and popularized terminology such as anode, cathode, electrode, and ion. He died in 1867 at the age of 75. He had previously turned down burial in Westminster Abbey, but he has a memorial plaque there, near Isaac Newton's tomb.