That guy from Newington Butts.

That guy was Michael Faraday. Born in 1791, he was both a chemist and physicist. He had range, a deep scope of interests and had the rare ability to see "into" things. For example, he discovered that a magnetic field could bend light. Just how the hell do you do that in the 1800's? Most homes barely had artificial sources of light, let alone anything so abstract as a way to bend it.

Early life was poor but happy. At 14 he went to apprentice as a bookbinder. Not surprisingly, this bookbinder sold and collected books and the young Faraday read everything. The apprenticeship was 7 years and during all that time he developed a keen interest in the sciences.

Among his many contributions to science we can list the basic but useful- Bunsen burner, the basic but useful with the other one-discovered benzine, the amazing given what year it was- by providing the first description, in scientific terms, of nanoparticles. He also invented, in 1821, no less, the electric motor.

Now all he needed was electricity.