Messrs Stodart & Faraday
Gentn
I sometime since read with considerable interest your essay on the alloys of steel1 & being convinced that some of them might be introduced with great advantage into our own manufactory for the various descriptions of cutlery as well as for the fronts of stoves & fenders I determined to make an experiment in the large way with steel & silver and if the price of the alloys do not prohibit them with platina and Rhodium, but as the success of the experiment depends upon “a faithful and diligent attention on the part of the operator” which I could not insure unless I superintended it in all its processes I defered it untill we had erected some new workshops we were building. They are now nearly complete & we shall soon be able to have the steel made & the articles finished on our own premises. The whole process of Casting, Forging, Hardening & Grinding will be carried on under my own instruction or of one of my partners.
Will you have the goodness to inform me if any further instructions are necessary than those published in the Repy of Arts for Jany 18222 and where the alloys are to be obtained on the best terms & the price. In return we shall have great pleasure in presenting you with fenders made of the improved steel if it succeeds to our expectation.
I am | Gentlemen | Your Obedient Humble Servant | G. Pickslay
Sheffield April 14 1824
FARADAY, Michael (1822a): “Sur la Temperature produite par la condensation de la vapeur”, Ann. Chim., 20: 320-5.
FARADAY, Michael (1822b): “Description of an Electro-magnetical Apparatus for the Exhibition of Rotary Motion”, Quart. J. Sci., 12: 283-5.
Please cite as “Faraday0231,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 19 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday0231