MacTutor
Michael Faraday
Times obituary
The world of science lost on Sunday one of its most assiduous and enthusiastic members. The life of Michael Faraday had been spent from early manhood in the single pursuit of scientific discovery, and though his years extended to 73, he preserved to the end the freshness and vivacity of youth in the exposition of his favorite subjects, coupled with a measure of simplicity which youth never attains. His perfect mastery of the branches of physical knowledge he cultivated, and the singular absence of personal display which characterized everything he did, must have made him under any circumstances a lecturer of the highest rank, but as a man of science he was gifted with the rarest felicity of experimenting, so that the illustrations of his subjects seemed to answer with magical ease to his call It was this peculiar combination which made his lectures attractive to crowded audiences in Albemarle Street for so many years, and which brought, Christmas after Christmas, troops of young people to attend his expositions of scientific processes and scientific discovery with as much zest as is usually displayed in following lighter amusements.
Faraday was born in the neighborhood of London in the year 1794. He was one of those men who have become distinguished in spite of every disadvantage of origin and of early education, and if the contrast between the circumstances of his birth and of his later worldly distinction be not as dazzling as is sometimes seen in other walks of life, it is also true that his career was free from the vulgar ambition and uneasy strife after place and power which not uncommonly detract from the glory of the highest honors. His father was a smith, and he himself, after a very imperfect elementary education, was apprenticed to a bookbinder named Riebau, in Blandford Street. He was, however, already inspired with the love of natural science His leisure time was spent conducting such chemical experiments as were within his means, and he ventured on the construction of an electrifying machine, thus foreseeing the particular sphere of his greatest future discoveries. He was eager to quit trade for the humblest position as a student of physical science, and his tastes becoming known to a gentleman who lived in his master's neighborhood, he obtained for him admission to the chemical lectures which Sir Humphry Davy, then newly knighted and in the plenitude of his powers, was delivering at the Royal Institution. This was in 1812. Faraday not only attended the lectures, but took copious notes of them, which he carefully rewrote and boldly sent to Sir Humphry, begging his assistance in his desire "to escape from trade and to enter into the ape service of science." The trust in Davy's kindness which prompted the appeal was not misplaced. Sir Humphry warmly praised the powers shown in the notes of his lectures and hoped he might be able to meet the writer's wishes. Early in 1813 the opportunity came. The post of assistant in the Laboratory in Albemarle Street became vacant, and Sir Humphry offered it to Faraday, who accepted it with a plea which can be easily imagined. Thus, in March 1813, the connection between Faraday and the Royal Institution commenced, which only terminated with his life. Faraday very soon became firmly attached to Davy. The only instance of a suspension for it was a suspension and not a breach of his connection with the Royal Institution occurred from October 1813 to April 1815, during which time he accompanied Sir Humphry as his scientific assistant and secretary in his travels on the Continent. His life after his return was devoted uninterruptedly to his special studies. In 1821, while assisting Davy in pursuing the investigation of the relations between electricity and magnetism, first started by Oersted, he made the brilliant discovery of the convertible rotation of a magnetic pole and an electric current, which was the prelude to his wonderful series of experimental researches in electricity. These investigations procured him the honor of being elected Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences in 1823, and Fellow of the Royal Society in 1825. In 1827 he published his first work, a volume on Chymical Manipulation; and in 1829 he was appointed Chemical Lecturer at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, a post he held, in conjunction with his duties at the Royal Institution, for many years. In 1831 his first paper appeared in the Philosophical Transactions on the subject of electricity, describing his experimental studies of the science, and from that time for many years the Transactions annually contained papers by Faraday giving the method and results of his investigations. These papers, with some others contributed to scientific journals on the same subject, were subsequently collected at different intervals in three volumes under the title of Experimental Researches in Electricity. The first volume appeared in 1839 and contained the contributions to the Philosophical Transactions up to that date. The second volume was published in 1844, and the third in 1855. It is not too much to say that through the experiments thus described Faraday formed the science of electricity. He established the identity of the forces manifested in the phenomena known as electrical, galvanic, and magnetic; he ascertained with exactness the laws of its action; he determined its correlation with the other primal forces of the natural world. While he was still pursuing the brilliant career of investigation which thus proved so successful, the chair of Chymistry was founded at the Royal Institution in 1833, and Faraday was naturally appointed the first Professor. In 1835 he was recommended by Lord Melbourne for a pension of 300l a year in recognition of his great distinction as a discoverer. From that time his career was one of increasing honour. Oxford conferred on him an honorary degree on the first occasion of a meeting of the British Association at the University. He was raised from the position of Corresponding Member to be one of the eight foreign Associates of the Academy of Sciences. He was an officer of the Legion of Honour, and Prussia and Italy decorated him with crosses of various orders. The Royal Society conferred on him its own medal and the Romford medal. In 1858 the Queen most graciously allotted him a residence at Hampton Court, between which and Albemarle Street he spent the last years of his life, and where he died peacefully on Sunday. The belief in the disinterested zeal and lofty purity of life of the students of philosophy, which was one motive for Faraday's petition when a lad asked Davy to enable him to become a servant in the humblest walks of science rather than to spend his days in the pursuit of trade, was redeemed by Faraday's whole life. No man was ever more entirely unselfish, or more entirely beloved. Modest, truthful, candid, he had the true spirit of a philosopher and of a Christian, for it may be said of him, in the words of the father of English poetry, -
"Gladly would he learn, and gladly teach,"
The cause of science would meet with fewer enemies, its discoveries would command a more ready assent, were all its votaries imbued with the humility of Michael Faraday.
____________________________________________________
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES,
Sir,—In the autumn of 1867 died Michael Faraday, a man who, by his achievements in science, gave glory to England, the land of his birth, and commanded the respect of the world. The story of his life has at this time a peculiar significance. The son of a working man and himself brought up as a bookbinder, Faraday, by the force of intellest alone, acquired not wealth or titular honors, but fame which will endure forever. He might have secured riches and have had his name recorded in the roll of knights; but he refused both—not from the cynical pride or affected humility which philosophers have sometimes displayed with so much ostentation. He was a man of large and generous sympathies, and was not contemptuously indifferent to the good opinion of his fellow men; But his soul was in his work, and that work was the exploration of the power of the great physical forces of the universe. With marvellous knowledge of penetration, rare sagacity, extraordinary manipulative skill, and indomitable energy, he extorted from Nature some of her sublimest and most recondite secrets. His researches in chemistry, electricity, and magnetism fill volumes. He was content to establish laws, leaving to others the subordinate work of applying those laws to objects of practical utility. It is these applications which meet the public eye and tell most on the pablic mind, while the abstract labors of the great discoverer are known only to the initiated few. The former bring substantial gain, but the latter only that pure and inward satisfaction which is its own reward, and which no money can buy. Without the lifelong and disinterested efforts of men like Faraday, the spirit of invention would languish and the progress of the arts would be greatly retarded. Two of the most directly practical and striking results which have proceeded from Faraday's discoveries are the brilliant illumination of lighthouses by means of the magneto-electric current, and the process of electro-plating by means of the current. The author of this letter was present when Mr. Faraday and his wife first saw the latter process in operation, and well remembers what pleasure he manifested in seeing others reap a golden harvest from his labours. One of the most distinguished living chymists, a foreigner, traces the discovery of all the magnificent coal-tar colours now so extensively employed in dyeing to the discoverer of the substance termed benzol.
"And who," he says, "discovered benzol?"
"England may well be proud of the answer—Michael Faraday. This history teaches us another supposedly still; for it is apt to be forgotten in a great industrial country like England, where fortune ever tempts the chymist from the hard mountain path of pure scientific exploration to the smiling slopes of lucrative industrial application. That lesson, based on the discovery of Benrol, and pointing to the name of its illustrious discoverer, Faraday, bids us, if we would reach the noblest heights of fame, to seek pure truth, careless of industrial advantages to ourselves, yet sure that from our labors practical good will in due season flow for the benefit of all mankind."
Faraday was often consulted by the government and was ever ready to give his counsel and assistance regardless of pecuniary remuneration.
Faraday was of the people of England, and the people of England will honor his memory. They owe him much, and they will gladly acknowledge their obligation. His widow survives, and to the tender devotion of that excellent lady during more than 40 years, Faraday, if he could speak from his grave, would be foremost to ascribe the success of his life. Faraday died poor, and his widow is a snered charge upon the nation. He was in receipt of a pension of 300 pounds a year from the national exchequer, and assuredly if ever a pension should be continued to the widow of one of England's greatest men, Mrs. Faraday is that widow. Whatever arrangement may be proposed by the Treasury in re-gard to another female relative of Faraday, the whole British public would receive with unqualified satisfaction the announcement that a pension of not less than 300 pounds a year has been conferred on his widow. There is not a working-man in the kingdom who would not feel himself honored by such agrant. Let there be no higgling over the valuable annuity of 1 to the extent of a thousand pounds or so more or a less, but let the thing be done nobly, gracefully, and speedily, and not a dissentient voice will be heard. The Government has the rare opportunity of honoring the memory of one of the greatest philosophers the world has yet seen, and, at the same time, of stimulating the intellectual energy of every working man—even the humblest and the poorest in the kingdom. Let them do what ought to be done in this case, and they will never have cause to regret.
Jan. 20.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
Y.
___________________________________________
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES,
Sir,
In The Times of this day a letter appears respecting the late Mr. Faraviny bearing the signature of "Y." I trust you will permit me to cite from it the following passage, with a view to its correction:
"Two of the most directly practical and striking results which have proceeded from Faraday's discoveries are the brilliant illumination of lighthouses by means of the magnetic electric current, and the process of electroplating by means of the same current. The author of this letter was present when Mr. Faraday and his wife first saw the latter process in operation, and well remembers what pleasure he manifested at seeing others reap a golden harvest from his labors. One of the most distinguished of living chymists, a foreigner, traces the discovery of all the magnificent coal-tar colours, now so extensively employed in dyeing to the discoverer of the substance termed benzol."
In referring to this passage, I beg to assure you that I have no desire to detract from the merits of so distinguished a philosopher and one who has done so much honour to his country as Mr. Faraday. In justice to myself, however, I am especially bound to correct the portion of the above passage which, as you will see, I have put in italics. Mr. Faraday had not the most remote connexion, even in theory, with the discovery of electroplating, electro-type, or with what comprises the whole series, electro-metallurgy. But, what is more, he was never known to lay claim to it, or to any discovery which did not belong to him; and I, for one, should have been much surprised to have heard of him putting forward a claim to the origin of the discovery of the "magnificent coal-tar colours" of which your correspondent speaks because of the very remote discovery of benzene. But with regard to the discovery of electro-metallurgy there is not even this amount of remoteness, for Mr. Faraday was never, previously or since, known to make a single experiment bearing in its direction; and no one was more astonished at the results, simple as they now are, than him. In 1839, soon after I had brought the subject forward to Liverpool, he wrote to me from the Royal Institution for a copy of my pamphlet, in which the discovery and its practice up to then was described, and also for any electro castings or other illustrations I happened to have by me, as he expressed his intention of delivering a lecture on the subject at that institution. The pamphlet, with several specimens in copper, some of which were covered with silver, some as well as specimens of printing, with drawings of the apparatus, were sent to him, and he delivered his lecture accordingly, and at its close expressed his indebtedness to me for them.
Perhaps I may be allowed to add, in conclusion, that in that pamphlet are set forth the principles and practice of electro-metallurgy as in present use, along with the physical laws by which such metallurgical depositions are governed, all of which hold good at the present hour, and are reprinted in the last editions of most works on the subject.
London, January 21.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
Thomas Spencer.
________________________________________________-
Yo the Editor of The Times.
Sir,
No one has claimed for Faraday the invention of electroplating. What I stated was—and I repeat the statement with the utmost confidence—that the application of the magneto-electric current proceeded from the discovery of Faraday, for it was he who discovered the magneto-electric current itself. The chemist to whom I referred respecting the coal-tar colours is the highest authority on the subject—I mean Dr. Hofmann, now Professor of Chemistry at Berlin.
Jan. 22.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
Y.
_______________________________________________
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir,
I read the letter on Faraday, signed "Y.," with great delight. There was one point only where I differed from "Y.," and that was his appeal to the generosity of Government. Would Faraday have approved that he who asked and accepted nothing from Government, whether money or titles? Surely, if Faraday's companion and assistant, if Faraday's widow wants support, there are hundreds in this country who will be proud to place their names and contributions to such a memorial to the memory of one of England's greatest men? Men of science are plentiful, from Dukes down to many a working man. And are there not others, too, to whom Faraday's lectures have opened views, more surprising, more refreshing, and elevating than the grandest views of the seashore or the Alps? No—let the Royal Society start a subscription. No, and you will see that no appeal is wanted to the Government, whose generosity is never without a taint, and that men of Faraday's character—the very salt of the earth—are quietly, but not the less truly, appreciated by thousands,
X, Y, Z,
________________________________________________
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir,
I am requested by Mrs. Faraday to express, through you, her thanks to your correspondents and to the public for the interest they are disposed to take in her behalf. The whole course of her husband's life was marked by his love of retirement that she feels most keenly the intrusion of his name even while she cannot but be grateful for the kindness which causes her so much pain. She wishes me to assure all those who value Mr. Faraday that the recognition that has already been made of his merits has given her more than she either requires or desires; and she is most anxious that his name should not be used in a way which he would never have approved.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
Brook Street, January 29.
H. Bence Jones
The world of science lost on Sunday one of its most assiduous and enthusiastic members. The life of Michael Faraday had been spent from early manhood in the single pursuit of scientific discovery, and though his years extended to 73, he preserved to the end the freshness and vivacity of youth in the exposition of his favorite subjects, coupled with a measure of simplicity which youth never attains. His perfect mastery of the branches of physical knowledge he cultivated, and the singular absence of personal display which characterized everything he did, must have made him under any circumstances a lecturer of the highest rank, but as a man of science he was gifted with the rarest felicity of experimenting, so that the illustrations of his subjects seemed to answer with magical ease to his call It was this peculiar combination which made his lectures attractive to crowded audiences in Albemarle Street for so many years, and which brought, Christmas after Christmas, troops of young people to attend his expositions of scientific processes and scientific discovery with as much zest as is usually displayed in following lighter amusements.
Faraday was born in the neighborhood of London in the year 1794. He was one of those men who have become distinguished in spite of every disadvantage of origin and of early education, and if the contrast between the circumstances of his birth and of his later worldly distinction be not as dazzling as is sometimes seen in other walks of life, it is also true that his career was free from the vulgar ambition and uneasy strife after place and power which not uncommonly detract from the glory of the highest honors. His father was a smith, and he himself, after a very imperfect elementary education, was apprenticed to a bookbinder named Riebau, in Blandford Street. He was, however, already inspired with the love of natural science His leisure time was spent conducting such chemical experiments as were within his means, and he ventured on the construction of an electrifying machine, thus foreseeing the particular sphere of his greatest future discoveries. He was eager to quit trade for the humblest position as a student of physical science, and his tastes becoming known to a gentleman who lived in his master's neighborhood, he obtained for him admission to the chemical lectures which Sir Humphry Davy, then newly knighted and in the plenitude of his powers, was delivering at the Royal Institution. This was in 1812. Faraday not only attended the lectures, but took copious notes of them, which he carefully rewrote and boldly sent to Sir Humphry, begging his assistance in his desire "to escape from trade and to enter into the ape service of science." The trust in Davy's kindness which prompted the appeal was not misplaced. Sir Humphry warmly praised the powers shown in the notes of his lectures and hoped he might be able to meet the writer's wishes. Early in 1813 the opportunity came. The post of assistant in the Laboratory in Albemarle Street became vacant, and Sir Humphry offered it to Faraday, who accepted it with a plea which can be easily imagined. Thus, in March 1813, the connection between Faraday and the Royal Institution commenced, which only terminated with his life. Faraday very soon became firmly attached to Davy. The only instance of a suspension for it was a suspension and not a breach of his connection with the Royal Institution occurred from October 1813 to April 1815, during which time he accompanied Sir Humphry as his scientific assistant and secretary in his travels on the Continent. His life after his return was devoted uninterruptedly to his special studies. In 1821, while assisting Davy in pursuing the investigation of the relations between electricity and magnetism, first started by Oersted, he made the brilliant discovery of the convertible rotation of a magnetic pole and an electric current, which was the prelude to his wonderful series of experimental researches in electricity. These investigations procured him the honor of being elected Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences in 1823, and Fellow of the Royal Society in 1825. In 1827 he published his first work, a volume on Chymical Manipulation; and in 1829 he was appointed Chemical Lecturer at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, a post he held, in conjunction with his duties at the Royal Institution, for many years. In 1831 his first paper appeared in the Philosophical Transactions on the subject of electricity, describing his experimental studies of the science, and from that time for many years the Transactions annually contained papers by Faraday giving the method and results of his investigations. These papers, with some others contributed to scientific journals on the same subject, were subsequently collected at different intervals in three volumes under the title of Experimental Researches in Electricity. The first volume appeared in 1839 and contained the contributions to the Philosophical Transactions up to that date. The second volume was published in 1844, and the third in 1855. It is not too much to say that through the experiments thus described Faraday formed the science of electricity. He established the identity of the forces manifested in the phenomena known as electrical, galvanic, and magnetic; he ascertained with exactness the laws of its action; he determined its correlation with the other primal forces of the natural world. While he was still pursuing the brilliant career of investigation which thus proved so successful, the chair of Chymistry was founded at the Royal Institution in 1833, and Faraday was naturally appointed the first Professor. In 1835 he was recommended by Lord Melbourne for a pension of 300l a year in recognition of his great distinction as a discoverer. From that time his career was one of increasing honour. Oxford conferred on him an honorary degree on the first occasion of a meeting of the British Association at the University. He was raised from the position of Corresponding Member to be one of the eight foreign Associates of the Academy of Sciences. He was an officer of the Legion of Honour, and Prussia and Italy decorated him with crosses of various orders. The Royal Society conferred on him its own medal and the Romford medal. In 1858 the Queen most graciously allotted him a residence at Hampton Court, between which and Albemarle Street he spent the last years of his life, and where he died peacefully on Sunday. The belief in the disinterested zeal and lofty purity of life of the students of philosophy, which was one motive for Faraday's petition when a lad asked Davy to enable him to become a servant in the humblest walks of science rather than to spend his days in the pursuit of trade, was redeemed by Faraday's whole life. No man was ever more entirely unselfish, or more entirely beloved. Modest, truthful, candid, he had the true spirit of a philosopher and of a Christian, for it may be said of him, in the words of the father of English poetry, -
"Gladly would he learn, and gladly teach,"
The cause of science would meet with fewer enemies, its discoveries would command a more ready assent, were all its votaries imbued with the humility of Michael Faraday.
____________________________________________________
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES,
Sir,—In the autumn of 1867 died Michael Faraday, a man who, by his achievements in science, gave glory to England, the land of his birth, and commanded the respect of the world. The story of his life has at this time a peculiar significance. The son of a working man and himself brought up as a bookbinder, Faraday, by the force of intellest alone, acquired not wealth or titular honors, but fame which will endure forever. He might have secured riches and have had his name recorded in the roll of knights; but he refused both—not from the cynical pride or affected humility which philosophers have sometimes displayed with so much ostentation. He was a man of large and generous sympathies, and was not contemptuously indifferent to the good opinion of his fellow men; But his soul was in his work, and that work was the exploration of the power of the great physical forces of the universe. With marvellous knowledge of penetration, rare sagacity, extraordinary manipulative skill, and indomitable energy, he extorted from Nature some of her sublimest and most recondite secrets. His researches in chemistry, electricity, and magnetism fill volumes. He was content to establish laws, leaving to others the subordinate work of applying those laws to objects of practical utility. It is these applications which meet the public eye and tell most on the pablic mind, while the abstract labors of the great discoverer are known only to the initiated few. The former bring substantial gain, but the latter only that pure and inward satisfaction which is its own reward, and which no money can buy. Without the lifelong and disinterested efforts of men like Faraday, the spirit of invention would languish and the progress of the arts would be greatly retarded. Two of the most directly practical and striking results which have proceeded from Faraday's discoveries are the brilliant illumination of lighthouses by means of the magneto-electric current, and the process of electro-plating by means of the current. The author of this letter was present when Mr. Faraday and his wife first saw the latter process in operation, and well remembers what pleasure he manifested in seeing others reap a golden harvest from his labours. One of the most distinguished living chymists, a foreigner, traces the discovery of all the magnificent coal-tar colours now so extensively employed in dyeing to the discoverer of the substance termed benzol.
"And who," he says, "discovered benzol?"
"England may well be proud of the answer—Michael Faraday. This history teaches us another supposedly still; for it is apt to be forgotten in a great industrial country like England, where fortune ever tempts the chymist from the hard mountain path of pure scientific exploration to the smiling slopes of lucrative industrial application. That lesson, based on the discovery of Benrol, and pointing to the name of its illustrious discoverer, Faraday, bids us, if we would reach the noblest heights of fame, to seek pure truth, careless of industrial advantages to ourselves, yet sure that from our labors practical good will in due season flow for the benefit of all mankind."
Faraday was often consulted by the government and was ever ready to give his counsel and assistance regardless of pecuniary remuneration.
Faraday was of the people of England, and the people of England will honor his memory. They owe him much, and they will gladly acknowledge their obligation. His widow survives, and to the tender devotion of that excellent lady during more than 40 years, Faraday, if he could speak from his grave, would be foremost to ascribe the success of his life. Faraday died poor, and his widow is a snered charge upon the nation. He was in receipt of a pension of 300 pounds a year from the national exchequer, and assuredly if ever a pension should be continued to the widow of one of England's greatest men, Mrs. Faraday is that widow. Whatever arrangement may be proposed by the Treasury in re-gard to another female relative of Faraday, the whole British public would receive with unqualified satisfaction the announcement that a pension of not less than 300 pounds a year has been conferred on his widow. There is not a working-man in the kingdom who would not feel himself honored by such agrant. Let there be no higgling over the valuable annuity of 1 to the extent of a thousand pounds or so more or a less, but let the thing be done nobly, gracefully, and speedily, and not a dissentient voice will be heard. The Government has the rare opportunity of honoring the memory of one of the greatest philosophers the world has yet seen, and, at the same time, of stimulating the intellectual energy of every working man—even the humblest and the poorest in the kingdom. Let them do what ought to be done in this case, and they will never have cause to regret.
Jan. 20.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
Y.
___________________________________________
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES,
Sir,
In The Times of this day a letter appears respecting the late Mr. Faraviny bearing the signature of "Y." I trust you will permit me to cite from it the following passage, with a view to its correction:
"Two of the most directly practical and striking results which have proceeded from Faraday's discoveries are the brilliant illumination of lighthouses by means of the magnetic electric current, and the process of electroplating by means of the same current. The author of this letter was present when Mr. Faraday and his wife first saw the latter process in operation, and well remembers what pleasure he manifested at seeing others reap a golden harvest from his labors. One of the most distinguished of living chymists, a foreigner, traces the discovery of all the magnificent coal-tar colours, now so extensively employed in dyeing to the discoverer of the substance termed benzol."
In referring to this passage, I beg to assure you that I have no desire to detract from the merits of so distinguished a philosopher and one who has done so much honour to his country as Mr. Faraday. In justice to myself, however, I am especially bound to correct the portion of the above passage which, as you will see, I have put in italics. Mr. Faraday had not the most remote connexion, even in theory, with the discovery of electroplating, electro-type, or with what comprises the whole series, electro-metallurgy. But, what is more, he was never known to lay claim to it, or to any discovery which did not belong to him; and I, for one, should have been much surprised to have heard of him putting forward a claim to the origin of the discovery of the "magnificent coal-tar colours" of which your correspondent speaks because of the very remote discovery of benzene. But with regard to the discovery of electro-metallurgy there is not even this amount of remoteness, for Mr. Faraday was never, previously or since, known to make a single experiment bearing in its direction; and no one was more astonished at the results, simple as they now are, than him. In 1839, soon after I had brought the subject forward to Liverpool, he wrote to me from the Royal Institution for a copy of my pamphlet, in which the discovery and its practice up to then was described, and also for any electro castings or other illustrations I happened to have by me, as he expressed his intention of delivering a lecture on the subject at that institution. The pamphlet, with several specimens in copper, some of which were covered with silver, some as well as specimens of printing, with drawings of the apparatus, were sent to him, and he delivered his lecture accordingly, and at its close expressed his indebtedness to me for them.
Perhaps I may be allowed to add, in conclusion, that in that pamphlet are set forth the principles and practice of electro-metallurgy as in present use, along with the physical laws by which such metallurgical depositions are governed, all of which hold good at the present hour, and are reprinted in the last editions of most works on the subject.
London, January 21.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
Thomas Spencer.
________________________________________________-
Yo the Editor of The Times.
Sir,
No one has claimed for Faraday the invention of electroplating. What I stated was—and I repeat the statement with the utmost confidence—that the application of the magneto-electric current proceeded from the discovery of Faraday, for it was he who discovered the magneto-electric current itself. The chemist to whom I referred respecting the coal-tar colours is the highest authority on the subject—I mean Dr. Hofmann, now Professor of Chemistry at Berlin.
Jan. 22.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
Y.
_______________________________________________
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir,
I read the letter on Faraday, signed "Y.," with great delight. There was one point only where I differed from "Y.," and that was his appeal to the generosity of Government. Would Faraday have approved that he who asked and accepted nothing from Government, whether money or titles? Surely, if Faraday's companion and assistant, if Faraday's widow wants support, there are hundreds in this country who will be proud to place their names and contributions to such a memorial to the memory of one of England's greatest men? Men of science are plentiful, from Dukes down to many a working man. And are there not others, too, to whom Faraday's lectures have opened views, more surprising, more refreshing, and elevating than the grandest views of the seashore or the Alps? No—let the Royal Society start a subscription. No, and you will see that no appeal is wanted to the Government, whose generosity is never without a taint, and that men of Faraday's character—the very salt of the earth—are quietly, but not the less truly, appreciated by thousands,
X, Y, Z,
________________________________________________
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir,
I am requested by Mrs. Faraday to express, through you, her thanks to your correspondents and to the public for the interest they are disposed to take in her behalf. The whole course of her husband's life was marked by his love of retirement that she feels most keenly the intrusion of his name even while she cannot but be grateful for the kindness which causes her so much pain. She wishes me to assure all those who value Mr. Faraday that the recognition that has already been made of his merits has given her more than she either requires or desires; and she is most anxious that his name should not be used in a way which he would never have approved.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
Brook Street, January 29.
H. Bence Jones
