One night, not long after, just as Michael was about to retire, Sir Humphry Davy's carriage stopped at his humble lodging, and a servant handed him a written invitation to call upon the great lecturer the next morning.

Michael could scarcely trust his eyes as he read the note.

In the morning he called as requested, and was engaged to clean instruments and take them to and from the lecture-room.

He watched eagerly every movement of Davy, as with a glass mask over his face, he developed his safety-lamp and experimented with dangerous explosives.

Michael studied and experimented, too, and it was not long before this poor boy with no chance was invited to lecture before the great philosophical society.
He was appointed professor at the Royal Academy of Woolwich, and became the wonder of the age in science.