I wanted some apparatus; this last want I tried to remedy by making apparatus for myself according to the description I had read; and as electricity was the science which then engrossed my attention, my sole aim was at an electrical machine. I made many fruitless attempts with large phials, &c, for the purpose of producing one, but they all ended in disappointment. I was then obliged to read the old theory over and over again for some time longer, till I found the defects in my former trials, and I then proceeded to make new ones; suffice it to say that at last I constructed a machine, and have since made some other additions to it in apparatus, but it is small and still so incomplete that I can do nothing but repeat some of the old and obvious experiments and am not able to satisfy myself with regard to any particular theory by making new ones1.
Please cite as “Faraday0002,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on