Samuel Hunter Christie to Faraday   10 March 1832

Woolwich Common | 10th March 1832

My dear Sir,

I send you back the first portion of your paper1 as there appears scarcely any alteration; the second I wish to look at rather more leisurely than I can at present, but you shall have [it] by Monday's first post2. I had made the query, which you refer to, previously to my conversation with you, and I did not mean it to remain.

It was decided that my report3 should go in nearly as it [is] referring to the experiments which you have since made, at the same time that I mention those which I made, to show that the intensity is not the same in all metals. To this you can have no objection, as you retain your first experiments & the conclusions from them. It was likewise settled that an account of my experiments should be read to the Society. I wished to have had this ready by Thursday next4, but fear I shall not be able. I was so much interrupted yesterday, and at the same time troubled with violent headache that all I did was to compare the Zinc with the Copper wire. The results from the breaking contact are all very consistent; those from making it not so much so. This I attribute to the contact being almost necessarily always broken in the same moment, but that it is difficult always to make precisely in the same way. I think the series of experiments will be satisfactory. What lengths do you propose of the wires you intend sending. I have used 50 inches of unconnected wire and 2 inches at each end for contact, so that each wire is 54 inches long two wires of each metal. With those I now have, I shall note the results at every 5 inches of the worse conductor, until no effect at the galvanometer.

I tried to obtain the spark, in the manner you mentioned, but either the experiment or my optics failed5.

The sheet of paper containing the figures is quite safe & it is to be sent to the engraver.

Believe me | very truly yours | S.H. Christie

Michael Faraday Esq

1
Faraday (1832b), ERE2 which was in two sections.
2
That is 12 March 1832
3
That is Christie's and Bostock's report of Faraday (1832b), ERE2, which has not survived. However, Christie (1833), 100-1 says that his and Bostock's report (RS MS RR 1.62) on Faraday (1832a), ERE1 was read by accident instead on 5 April 1832. This was subsequently published in Proc.Roy.Soc.,1832, 3: 113-9.
4
That is 15 March 1832. This work was not published until Christie (1833). See p.101 for the reasons for the delay.
5
Christie did succeed by 5 April 1832. See Proc.Roy.Soc.,1832, 3: 115.

Bibliography

CHRISTIE, Samuel Hunter (1833): “The Bakerian Lecture. Experimental Determination of the Laws of Magneto-electric Induction in different masses of the same Metal, and of its Intensity in different Metals”, Phil. Trans., 123: 95-142.

FARADAY, Michael (1832a): “Experimental Researches in Electricity. On the Induction of Electric Currents. On the Evolution of Electricity from Magnetism. On a new Electrical Condition of Matter. On Arago's Magnetic Phenomena”, Phil. Trans., 122: 125-62.

FARADAY, Michael (1832b): “The Bakerian Lecture. Experimental Researches in Electricity. - Second Series. Terrestrial Magneto-electric Induction. Force and Direction of Magneto-electric Induction generally”, Phil. Trans., 122: 163-94.

Please cite as “Faraday0556,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 3 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday0556