Faraday to Edward Daniel Clarke   27 August 1816

Royal Institution Aug[u]st 27th

Sir

I send the paper¹ by the Mail of this evening for your alteration[.] The Printer has composed a considerable part of it which will however be altered according to the copy you will send back. He wishes for it as soon as possible. A drawing has been made of the blowpipe with its condensing syringe & the small tube and given to the engraver on wood. It will be placed at the head of the paper so that a reference to it in the body of the paper might be agreeable[.]

When you first mentioned the reduction of the earths Baryta and Strontia it was done so briefly as to allow of many doubts of respecting the accuracy of the experiments & the results[.] I am glad these have been fully considered. Perhaps it would be worth while to state an experiment in which the metals have been converted into earths again[.] Indeed so singular is it that they should be at all permanent in the atmosphere that the world will require full proof that that is the case. Their action on water (particularly that of Plutonium²[)] I should think would be very violent.

In your last letter³ you have said that you obtained the metals without the aid of charcoal but I suppose the reduction was effected not by the heat alone but with the aid of some combustible matter as oil &c. The supposition relates merely to the reduction not to the probably presence of any other metal[.]

I am Sir | With Great Respect | Your Humble Servant | M. Faraday