Faraday to Davies Gilbert   13 May 1830

Royal Institution | May 13th. 1830

Dear Sir

At your request I have been making enquiries that I might be enabled to judge what would be the probable expence of continuing & perfecting the glass experiments at this place[.]

I am induced to suppose that from £ 75 to £ 80 would pay the wages and buy the materials necessary to enable me to ascertain the full value of the process already described in the paper you have made the Bakerian Lecture¹ - and that if afterwards it were required to extend the process to plates of glass 18 or 20 inches in diameter £ 100 more would build the furnace - pay wages &c for that purpose[.]

I purposely avoid reading the articles my friends tell me appear in the public prints²[.] But the mere mention of them by others induces me to remind you that the expence incurred by the Sub Committee at the Royal Institution by leave of the Authorities is not above a fourth or a fifth I believe of that incurred by Sir H. Davy and the Committee which he appointed at the outset of the investigation[.]

I further wish you most distinctly to understand that I regret I ever allowed myself to be named as one of the Committee. I have had in consequence several years of hard work; all the time that I could spare from necessary duties (and which I wished to devote to original research) [has] been consumed in the experiments and consequently given gratuitously to the public[.] I should be very glad now to follow Mr Herschells example & return to the prosecution of my own views and it is only because I do not like to desert my post at the critical time if you and others think it worth while to keep it filled that I am willing to pursue the experiments further[.]

I am Dear Sir | Your Obliged & faithful Servant | M. Faraday

Davies Gilbert Esq PRS | &c &c &c

Endorsed: Mr. Faraday’s Estimate