Royal Institution Aug[u]st 8th 1816
Sir,
I have been to the Printer to ask him the time he can allow for making up Copy and he says that three weeks are as much as he can spare - In which time Sir if you can favour us with a paper1 of so much interest as the experiments or rather results you so briefly relate promise we shall be much indebted to you[.]
The printer is very willing & indeed prefers that you should yourself correct the press but we have no means except the Post by which to send the impression down. But if when you send the copy you also transmit other directions we shall strictly attend to them[.]
Mr. Newman appears not to have been sufficiently explicit in detailing to you the history of the experiment in which oxygene & hydrogen are burnt from his blow-pipe2. I presume that from the interest you must feel in your present series of experiments you will excuse me for giving a fuller account of it[.]
The merit of having first burned oxygene & hydrogen issuing in mixture from a common reservoir belongs to an unknown Native of Germany who as far back as 3 years ago told Mr. Tatum3 of this City that he had burned a mixture of oxygene & hydrogen propelled from a bladder through a long narrow tube at the end of the tube with safety & without the inflammation passing up into the mass of gasses. He considered the security of the experiment as depending on a strong pressure given to the bladder. Whilst in conversation with Mr. Tatum & relating to him the singular experiment in which Sir H. Davy had introduced one of his lamps into a receiver filled with oxygene & hydrogene gasses in the most explosive proportions - he told me of the above circumstance but said he had never made the experiment. I afterwards mentioned it to Sir H. Davy because I considered it to depend on those very circumstances which ensure the safety of his mining lamp. Mr. Newmans blowpipes were made for the first time about this period & Sir H. Davy immediately applied one of them to the performance of this experiment. I was present[;] it was made with every caution requisite & succeeded perfectly[.] Platina was fused & a very intense heat obtained but nothing more was done with it[.]
This I have every reason to believe was the first time the experiment was done in England - at least no one had made it before in any way connected with the information I have just given. I myself first told Mr. Newman the result merely because it had been done with the substitution of his blow pipe for the original bladder. He informed me afterwards that he had mentioned it to you and that you wished to pursue it farther. I heard also of Dr. Wollastons4 objections & of the communication that passed between you & Sir H. Davy[.]
Such is the history of the case[.] A german first conceived the experiment if he did not make it[.] Sir H. Davy first made it in England & You Sir have the merit of applying it so happily & to the obtaining such remarkable results. I shall this evening see Mr. Tatum & make further enquiries respecting the author of his information and if you are desirous to transmit it to you on a future occasion[.]
I am Sir | with Great respect | Your very humble Servant | M. Faraday
Revd. Dr. Clarke Cambridge
Address: Revd. Dr. Clarke | Trumpington Street Cambridge
CLARKE, Edward Daniel (1817): “Account of some Experiments made with Newman's Blow-pipe, by inflaming a highly condensed Mixture of the gaseous Constituents of Water”, Quart. J. Sci., 2: 104-23.
DOLAN, Brian P., (1998): "Blowpipes and batteries: Humphry Davy, Edward Daniel Clarke, and experimental chemistry in early nineteenth-century Britain", Ambix 45: 137-162.
GRIMWADE, Arthur G. (1982): London Goldsmiths, 1697-1837: Their Marks and Lives, 2nd edition, London.
NEWMAN, John (1816): “Account of a new Blow-pipe”, Quart. J. Sci., 1: 65-6.
Please cite as “Faraday0065b,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday0065b