Faraday to Charles Babbage   25 March 1834

R Institution | 25 March 1834

Dear Sir

The incrustation is essentially & almost entirely Carbonate of lime[.] There is a trace of sulphate of lime present & a little oxide of Iron but there are no alkaline muriates or such matters[.]

There is also a very little organic matter - very little and I think it more likely to be the result of accident or due to the minute cryptogamous plants vegetating there than to any matter of the kind originally present1[.]

Ever truly Yours | M. Faraday

Chas Babbage Esq | &c &c &c

1
See "Royal Institution Laboratory Notebook, 1830-1861", 26 [sic] March 1834, RI MS HD 8b, p. 50 for Faraday's analysis of this substance from the "fallen column of Jupiter Serapis". See also Babbage (1834).

Bibliography

BABBAGE, Charles (1834): “Observations on the Temple of Serapis at Pozzuoli,near Naples”, Proc. Geol. Soc., 2: 72-6.

Please cite as “Faraday0704,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday0704