Faraday to William Flexman   3 May 1818¹

London: May 3, 1818

My dear Sir, - I owe you not only a letter, but a great many apologies and explanations for not having paid the debt sooner; and these are the more necessary in consequence of the good wishes, the kindness, attention, and actual favours which your letter brought me. But I cannot tell how it is, I am continually saying to myself that I have not yet time to do this or that thing, and yet, when the performance has been delayed until an hour rendered inconvenient from its lateness, when it must be done, I have suspected that an undue admission of small but dangerous delays has been the cause of the whole evil. I have not written to you before, because at each time when I thought of it I had something else in hand; and yet I must confess that many convenient opportunities for the purpose have passed away since I received yours. I hope you will not deny me pardon. My honest confession ought to mediate for me in some degree; and though a promise not to do so again will not remove the error already committed, it may perhaps tend to diminish the punishment not yet inflicted.

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I have this evening been busy with an atmospherical electrical apparatus. It was a very temporary thing, but answered the purpose completely. A wire with some small brush-wire rolled round the top of it was elevated into the atmosphere by a thin wood rod having a glass tube at the end, and tied to a chimney-pot on the house-top, and this wire was continued down (taking care that it touched nothing on the way) into the lecture-room; and we succeeded at intervals in getting sparks from it nearly a quarter of an inch in length, and in charging a Leyden jar so as to give a strong shock. The electricity was positive. Now, I think you could easily make an apparatus of this kind, and it would be a constant source of interesting matter; only take care you do not kill yourself, or knock down the house.

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I must now close my letter; not, however, without first thanking you for the very kind invitation you sent me for next summer. This, however, I have forfeited by not acknowledging it sooner; but even were your kindness to make it in full force, I must confess I feel so much indebted to my friends at South Moulton and Narracote, and have so little wherewithal to express my thanks and obligations, that I shall be careful how I again venture into such an unredeemable debt; but I was enticed into it by the kindness of those who laid me under these obligations, and now I have nothing but bare thanks to give in return. South Moulton was as pleasant to me as pleasure could be, and the remembrance has been as gratifying as the reality. I owe to you a part of the debt I incurred there, but have no other coin than that above tendered with which to pay you.

Accept, therefore, my dear Sir, the thanks and respects of your very obliged and humble servant, | M. Faraday