1Henry Parkins Hoppner2 to Faraday   12 April 1832

Dear Sir

The latitudes in which the Aurora Borealis was remarked by us on the late voyages of discovery, to be most prevalent was between the parallels of 57° & 61°, beyond which latter it gradually diminished in splendour as we advanced Northward.

I think we never witnessed it in greater perfection than in Lerwick Harbour Shetland, and once or twice at sea, whence about a degree to the Southd of Cape Farewell, where the colours were prismatic & extremely brilliant, covering the whole sky with the most splendid corruscations. On these occasions it was blowing hard from the NW with flying clouds.

If I can communicate any further information respecting this very interesting phenomenon that will be useful to you in your researches, it will give me great pleasure.

I am dear Sir | Your obliged Servant | H.P. Hoppner

8 [word illegible] Place | New Street | April 12th 1832

1
Henry Parkins Hoppner (1795-1833, NBU). Officer in Royal Navy who took part in many of the expeditions to the Arctic.
2
This letter is bound in Faraday (1832b), ERE2, opposite paragraph 192 in which Faraday speculates on the electrical origin of the Aurora Borealis.

Bibliography

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 “Faraday0567,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 29 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday0567