Charles Wilkins to Faraday   6 February 18281

Library EI House | 6th. Feby. 1828.-

Sir,

In acknowledging your application to me for the loan of a China Gong supposed to be in the EI Company’s Museum under my care, I am sorry to inform you that we have never possessed a specimen of that curious instrument. The late Sir Stamford Raffles2 had several, which, at the time of his death, were at the Duke of Somerset’s in Park Lane. I think if the Managers of the R Institution were to apply to Lady Raffles3 at her residence No. 23 Lower Grosvenor St. you would succeed in obtaining the loan of one of them 4.

I am, with great esteem, | Sir, | Your very obedient Servant | Chas Wilkins

M. Faraday Esq | Royal Institution

1
Charles Wilkins (1749-1836, DNB). Librarian of East India Company.
2
Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles (1781-1826, DSB). Colonial governor in service of East India Company.
3
Sophia Raffles, née Hall (1786-1858, GRO).
4
Sophia Raffles did lend various musical instruments from Java for Faraday’s Friday Evening Discourse “General account of vibrations producing sound” on 15 February. See Quart.J.Sci., 1828, 25: 173.

Please cite as “Faraday0346,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 29 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday0346