＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
You may have heard of Faraday in your middle school science or high school physics classes, but I doubt many people know much about him.
This book suddenly became popular after Akira Yoshino , winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, revealed that “when I was in elementary school, I read Faraday’s ‘The Scientific Study of a Candle’ and it sparked my interest in chemistry.” Immediately after the Nobel Prize was announced, even online sites such as Rakuten and Amazon listed the book as “expected to be in stock after late October,” and publishers were apparently busy reprinting it.
While Akira Yoshino developed the lithium-ion battery and “made life with smartphones possible,” Faraday was the scholar who “made life with electricity possible” by discovering the “law of electromagnetic induction.”
1. Michael Faraday (1791-1867)
He was a British chemist and physicist who made a great contribution to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. He discovered the law of electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism, and the law of electrolysis. His portrait shows that he is quite handsome.
He was the greatest scientist of the 19th century, and science historians call him “the greatest experimentalist in the history of science.”
His most famous law, “Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction,” states that the rate of change of magnetic flux is proportional to the induced electromotive force.
As the son of a poor blacksmith, he started helping with housework from an early age, then dropped out of elementary school and became an indentured servant at a bookbinder’s shop from the age of 14 to 20.
However, when the owner of the bookbinder saw him glaring with curiosity at a corner of a book that was in the process of being bound, he became interested in him and gave him time to read books. As a result, although he was unable to go to higher education, he was able to read a large number of books.
This was the starting point for the scientist Faraday. After listening to lectures by the two scientists, he set out on his path to becoming a scientist.
He began studying at meetings of the City of London Philosophical Society, and eventually became a chemical assistant to Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution. However, in the class society of the time, he was not recognized as a “gentleman” (*) because of his origins, and was made to accompany Davy on his European trips as his “assistant and valet.”
(*) “Gentleman” refers to a person who belongs to the “gentry” (usually translated as “country gentleman”), a historical social class in England. “Gentry” is a general term for the lower class of landowners who were below the aristocratic class of “barons.” Although they were not included in the aristocracy, they made up the “upper class” together with the aristocracy.
Davy began to become jealous of Faraday’s talent and was vehemently against Faraday becoming a member of the Royal Society. However, he was selected as a member thanks to the recommendation of Faraday’s friends. However, Davy left behind the words, “My greatest discovery was Faraday.”
Faraday was also involved in education, giving lectures on education at the Royal Institution and to the general public, including a series of “Christmas lectures” for boys and girls.
2. What is “The Science of a Candle”?
The famous “The Science of a Candle” is a compilation of the contents of the “Christmas Lectures” (a series of six lectures) given in 1860.
(6) Carbon or charcoal – coal gas – similarities between breathing and a burning candle – conclusion
4. Denjiro Yonemura (1955-) and Manabu Yukawa
(1) Denjiro Yonemura is a former physics teacher at a metropolitan high school, and a unique “science producer” who shows off a variety of interesting experiments on TV. I think there were some interesting experiments like this in Faraday’s “Christmas Lectures” on “The Science of Candles.”
(2) Manabu Yukawa is the protagonist of the “Galileo Series” by Keigo Higashino , a mystery novelist. In his work “Midsummer’s Equation,” he shows an elementary school boy the beautiful ocean floor of the Harigaura Bay using a plastic bottle rocket and the camera function of his smartphone.
There is also a story in which he demonstrates why a “paper pot” on a tabletop stove does not burn. The secret is revealed as follows: “Water boils at 100 degrees and turns into gas. As long as there is liquid water (broth), the paper pot will not burn. Paper only burns when it reaches about 300 degrees.”
He also wets the coaster underneath the glass and places it on top of the cylinder of solid fuel to explain complete combustion, incomplete combustion, and the need for oxygen for combustion.
This, too, is like a story you might see in a “science show” for children, and it was reminiscent of the works of Faraday and Denjiro Yonemura.
