Faraday to Benjamin Abbott   1 May and 24 July 1814

Rome May 1. 1814

Dear Ben

It was with much pleasure that I began a correspondence with you nor was the feeling diminished at any time during its continuance and though at present the interval between us is much greater than it was before which necessarily will render the progress of our epistolary communication much slower yet it is not at all my intention to drop it & I am in hopes that as it becomes more tardy in its advancement it will also become more important more instructive & more interesting[.] Certainly I cannot now advance an excuse for the uninteresting strain of my letters a want of matter for every day presents sufficient to fill a book[.] As I hope & expect that the good understanding still continues between our family & yours I expect that when they get a letter in Weymouth Street you will hear that I have thought of you[.] I shall therefore fill this paper principally with philosophical matter & as far as my feeble powers will permit me will endeavour to make it interesting[.] I have commenced at this 1 day of May 1814 in the ancient city of Rome & hope to send it off on Wednesday by favour to England but if it cannot go then I shall keep it by me & add to it as to a journal and send it when an opportunity occurs and opportunities I hope will soon be frequent[.]

Here the thing which is uppermost in the mind of every person is the strange chain of events which have brought about the downfall of Napoleon the Great (the title he had taken) & of the system of government that he had established these events are so singular & have occurred with such rapidity that it appears as a waking dream passing rapidly over the mind & of which it is difficult to form an idea of reality[.] To see the Bourbons on the throne of France was never expected & though a universal European peace was earnestly desired no hopes of it were entertained at present those events appear close at hand[.] God grant they may come to pass[.] Amongst these occurrences England has shone out most conspicuously & her firm & steady virtue & constancy are held up to the whole world as a model of imitation & England meets with her due in the praises of every one[.] In France I found every one laud the English at Paris they all praised the English & since we have left the French dominions we have been received with testimonies of pleasure & gratitude as strong as it was possible for the tongue to express[.] At Lucca we found the whole population without the gates waiting for the English[.] It was said that the Army which had debarked at Leghorn would enter Lucca that day & the inhabitants had come out to receive them as brothers[.] The town was decorated in the most brilliant manner by colours drapery and embroidery flying from every window & in the evening general illuminations took place done as expressive of their joy at the deliverance from the french government & the English were hailed every where as their Saviours[.] <qr>Geneva, July 24. 1814

This morsel of paper dear Ben has made a longer voyage than that I intended for it and instead of being in London it is now at Geneva but I hope that it will not be long before it is at its original destination and procuring me the pleasure of a letter from you[.] On perusing the last (and the first) page I found the matter so different from that at present in my head that I was suddenly urged to destroy it but second thoughts induced me to leave it unaltered since it conveyed the ideas of that moment which to you will not be more uninteresting than those of the present[.] As it is my intention to well fill this paper I shall write it as much in the style of description as in that of a letter or rather I shall write it as my thoughts run too much indeed out of order. You will find in this letter not a regular description of my journey but a few observations on those things which I have found most remarkable and which have been most under my notice for as all parts of my travels have pleased me it will be useless to say I liked Aix or I liked Nice &c. It is now 9 months ago since I left London but I have not forgot and never shall forget the ideas that were forced on my mind in the first daysto me who had lived all my days of remembrance in London in a city surrounded by a flat green country a hill was a mountain and a stone a rock for though I had abstract ideas of the things and could say rock & mountain and would talk of them yet I had no perfect ideas conceive then the astonishment the pleasure and the information that entered my mind in the varied county of Devonshire w[h]ere the foundations of the earth were first exposed to my view and where I first saw granite limestone &c in those places and those forms where the ever working and all wonderful hand of nature had placed them[.] No Ben it is impossible you can conceive my feelings and it is as impossible for me to describe them[.] The sea then presented a new scene of information and interest and on approaching the shore of France with what eagerness and how often were my eyes directed to the south[.] When arrived there I thought myself in an uncivilized country for never before or since have I seen such wretched beings as at Morlaix. But I must break this train of thoughts Dear Ben and carry you in haste to Paris where art exerts her power to inform and astonish man[.] There are many things at Paris calculated in an eminent degree to arrest the progress of the traveller but these things consist in the works of men & I would rather talk to you of the works of nature however I must not forget to tell you of what I suppose you have heard at least I earnestly hope so namely Iodine on which Sir H. Davy has made many experiments and he has written to the Royal Society papers on the subject¹[.] This substance adds a fourth body to the class of supporters of combustion or to the class of undecomposed bodies attracted by the positive pole of the Voltaic apparatus and which by their strong and opposed attraction to other bodies produce light & heat and it is the only one of them which has been obtained in a separate piece & solid form[.] It is very heavy of a dark colour similar to plumbago and has much the appearance of that body when heated it melts and gives off or rises in the form of a beautifully coloured violet gas of great intensity and when cooled it appears in minute crystals but otherwise unchanged[.] It combines readily with many other bodies with all the metals except two that I have seen it tried on the two are Platinum & Gold and I have seen the compounds it forms with Iron Tin Lead Silver Copper Mercury &c. It forms acids by combining with very different bodies thus Chlorine Hydrogen Phosphorous & Tin all form acid[s] with it & possessing new and singular properties. I unites to Azote & like chlorine forms a detonating compound with it & with potassium sodium Baryum &c it forms substances very similar to the compounds of these bodies wi<<th>> Chlorine indeed it resembles this body more than any other in its combination<<s.>> When added to Potash in solution two new compounds are formed one being <<a>> binary compound of iodine & potassium similar to muriate of po<<tas>>h as it <<is>> called and the other parallels with oxymuriate of potash for it contains all the oxygen of the alkali and detonates very readily with nitre[.] I am however but wasting time in writing that of which you have a complete account as far as it goes in England and shortly I suppose that Sr H<_> will send you further accounts for he works upon it every day[.] Before I leave iodine however I must ask you & also desire you to inform me of the state of your sentiments respecting chlorine whether you class that substance & fluorine with oxygene or whether you insulate the last body as in former times[.] On leaving Paris we visited Lyons rested at Montpellier for a few weeks and afterwards saw Aix, Nice &c between Nice and Turin we crossed the Maritime alps by the Col de Tende in the Month of Feby. not the most favourable season in the year for crossing these many mountains[.] The col de Tende cost us a day to cross it and at the summit we were elevated above 6000 [feet] higher than the level of the sea. From Turin we went to Genoa where I first saw a torpedo and a water spout the torpedos here were too small for the experiments which Sr. H.<_> wished to make with them these experiments were to ascertain whether the electric power of the torpedo could be made to decompose water[.] The apparatus used was that of Wollaston and the fluid solution of potassa it being a very good conductor but though the animal gave several shocks which there is reason to suppose passed through the water yet no satisfactory result was obtained & no effect appeared to be produced[.] Sr. H.<_> has repeated these experiments since at Rimini with the torpedo of the adriatic Sea but they were also too small to give certain results² - Leaving Genoa we proceeded by water to Lereche [sic] and from thence to Florence a beautiful city where we remained some days here is a fine Museum of Natural History containing an immense quantity of things curious & instructive and some wax works in anatomy & botany of the most delicate kind[.] The collection of apparatus is numerous and rendered invaluable by the instruments of Galileo³ & the Duke of Tuscany⁴. The first telescope of Galileo & that with which he discovered the satellites of Jupiter is carefully preserved as an invaluable philosophical relic and also the first lens which he made which is set in a fine worked frame with an inscription it is cracked in two[.] There is also a vast quantity of electrical machines and apparatus there is a machine of Red Velvet passing under a rubber of black silk & there is a collection of jars broken singularly by extraordinary explosions[.] Magnets here are numerous and very strong & there is a compound one which supports some Cwt. Sr. H took the opportunity whilst here of making many experiments of the diamond with the great lens of the Grand Duke a noble instrument belonging to the academy and in these pursuits as in every other his attentive mind observed & demonstrated new facts⁵[.] In the first experiments on the combustion of the diamond it was placed in the middle of a glass globe of 18 or 20 cubical inches capacity supported in a cradle of platinum fixed on a prop on the same metal the cradle was pierced full of holes to admit a free circulation of air ie oxygen for the globe was filled with the gas procured from the hyperoxymuriate of potassa[.] On placing the apparatus thus arranged in the focus of the lens it the diamond shortly entered into combustion & on removing it from the instrument the combustion was observed to continue for above 4 minutes during this time the diamond gave off intense heat & a beautifull vivid scarlet light it diminished rapidly in size and became at last a mere atom when it ceased to burn but on placing it again in the focus the whole rapidly disappeared the globe was found to contain nothing but a mixture of Carbonic and Oxygene gases[.] This experiment was repeated several times and in all the cases the same striking phenomenon was observed a phenomenon which lessens considerably the difference existing between diamond and charcoal[.] Sir H burned also by the same instrument a piece of plumbago in oxygen and he heated also diamonds in Chlorine & Carbonic acid gases but no change was produced no compound no muriatic acid was formed in the first place and no carbonic oxide in the second[.] These experiments on carbonaceous substances were continued at Rome at which time charcoal obtained from Alcohol from Turpentine & from wood were weighed & burned and from all these experiments it appeared that the diamond was pure crystallized carbon and that the black compounds of carbon contained hydrogen though none of them in great quantities plumbago also contained hydrogen and when heated in chlorine the hydrogen was separated and fumes of muriatic acid clouded the globe of the charcoals that obtained from turpentine by sulphuric acid appeared the purest then that from alcohol and lastly the charcoal of wood by purity I mean a want of hydrogen and the purest contained the least hydrogen the charcoal of wood the most[.] Sr. H<_> wrote an account of these experiments which has been sent to the Royal Society & I hope received - From Florence we went to Rome that City of Wonders but they are wonders created by a former nation & in a former age[.] You know Ben my turn is not architectural nor though I can admire a beautiful picture do I pretend to judge of it but certainly the things here would affect any one and that mind must be dull indeed that is not urged to think & think again on these astonishing remains of the Romans when they appear in sight at every corner[.] I shall not pretend to describe them dear Ben since descriptions far more perfect than those I can give you are in England[.] The two things here most striking are the Coliseum & St. Peters and one is not more worthy of the ancients than the other is of the moderns[.] The Coliseum is a mighty ruin & indeed so is Rome & so are the Romans & it is almost impossible to conceive how the hardy warlike race which conquered the globe has degenerated into modern effeminate idle italians[.] St Peters appears to have been erected on the plan of some fairy tale for every luxury every ornament & every embellishment & species of embellishment have been employed in its erection[.] Its size is mighty it is mountainous its architecture elegant its materials costly[.] They consist of Marbles of every hue & every kind mosaics statues casts bronzes Jewels Gold & silver not spread sparingly but shining & glittering in every part[.] The mosaics are numerous and large and amongst the many designs that ornament this edifice there is but one painted picture - But I must for the present leave description and employ the rest of my paper on other matter matter which I have deferred to the last because I wish it to remain clearest & strongest in your mind[.] And in another letter I will give you such accounts of Naples Vesuvius &c as I am able to do (the burning mountain I have been up twice once in the day time and once at night)[.] As communications are so free between this place & England you will I hope not delay many days in answering this letter the time of communication is I believe only 7 days and the letters must be franked reciprocally out of each country. You will be so good as to let my Mother & friends know this and I hope I shall hear from more than one person and by more than one letter[.] There are two persons nearly strangers to my mother to which if you would go I should be much obliged[.] Mrs. Greenwell [sic] of the R. Institution to whom give my warmest thanks and remembrances for her kind treatment of me when there and my warmest wishes for here [sic] prosperity & happiness & Mr Newman of Lisle St. to whom I feel grateful for his readiness in communicating such things was were useful & instructive and whose success in life is I hope proportioned to his merits[.] To my Mother & My brother you will of course go and you will say all you can to them without any fear of outrunning the warmth of my wishes. I have wrote many times to them & by such hands as I suppose could not fail & I hope to hear now how they do & how affairs move[.] Give them all for me every warm feeling that can flow round the heart[.] To Mr. & Mrs. Abbott & to your Brother & Sister I present my respects & would if I durst my affections & to you Dear Ben I give the dearest feeling that can enliven the days of man friendship[.] May you ever be happy & honorably so and may you never have cause to censure the feelings of

Your Friend | M. Faraday

Direct to Me at Geneva Post restrant

Endorsed: Recd 8 Mo 4th 1814.

Address: Mr. B. Abbott | Long Lane | Bermondsey | London