Bâle July 3, 1839.
My dear Sir
I am very much obliged to you for your very kind letter of the 28th [sic] of April1 and I offer you my most sincere thanks for your friendly endeavours to get for my manuscript a publisher. What you had the kindness to communicate to me regarding that affair induced me to abandon the idea of having my little work published in English, I should like how‑ever very much to lay its principal contents before the asso‑ciation in Birmingham2 and to submit the results of my late researches to the consideration of the british philosophers and most particularly to yours.
As I think to be able to prove by facts that the electrical state of bodies has no influence whatsoever upon their chemical bearings i.e. that the very first principle of the electro-chemical theory of Berzelius is erroneous; as I am also prepared to show that the protection of metals for instance of copper or iron against the chemical action of seawater being apparently effected by voltaic means has directly nothing to do with the play of elec‑trical forces and as I am pretty sure to have found out the true theory of what is called the galvanization of metals and so have accurately determined the circumstances under which an (appa‑rent) change of the chemical relations of the metallic bodies is effected I should suppose that communications of such a kind would prove rather acceptable to the association and be received with some interest by them. Desirous, however, as I am of attending the meetings at Birmingham I am afraid I shall not be able of crossing the water on account of the great expense which such a journey would occasion to me. Certainly if there were a chance of the association's granting some money for the purpose of continuing the researches on the subjects alluded to I should not hesitate to undertake the journey. Now if it would not be too importunate on my part I should venture to ask you the favor of letting me know your opinion upon that point3.
By the same mail I send you this letter a paper of mine is forwarded to the Editors of the Phil. Mag.4 which treats of a peculiar voltaic arrangement being in some respects the very reverse from what our ordinary hydro-electric circles are. The memoir contains at the same time the statement of some curious facts which seem to refute the principle laid down by de la Rive5 and Becquerel6 according to which any sort of chemical action is capable of producing a current. These gentlemen laboured to my humble opinion under a great mistake in making such an assertion and I am inclined to think that the views the philo‑sopher of Geneva takes of Galvanism at large and of the pile in particular are very far from being correct and founded upon facts.
Within a short time I shall publish the details of the results of my researches regarding that interesting question and I imagine that it will he no very difficult task to me to demonstrate that the oxidation of any metal caused by nitric acid &c. does not throw the least quantity of electricity into circulation and that it is only to the chemical action of electrolytic bodies that we must ascribe the power of exciting currents.
Your important discoveries regarding the intimate connexion which exists between electrolysation and current-electricity have, as far as I understand the subject, not yet been duly appreciated by the philosophers of the Continent and least so by de la Rive and Becquerel.
I hope your stay in the country will have entirely reestablished your health and enabled you to resume your wonted scientific occupations. I am now left alone in Bâle, my family having gone into the mountains of the Jura to spend the summer there; as soon, however, as the vacations will have begun, I shall join them. A six week's living on the heights of the Jura and breathing the pure air of the hills would, perhaps, do you a great deal of good; can you not manage it to come over to us? I should be exceedingly happy, if I could ramble about with you in our valleys and wander in your company from one crag to another.
Entertaining the pleasing hopes of seeing you sooner or later
I am my dear Sir | Your's most sincerely | C.F. Schoenbein
Address: Doctor Faraday | Royal Institution | London
BECQUEREL, Antoine-César (1823): “Du Développement de l'électricité par le contact de deux portions d'un même métal, dans un état suffisamment inégal de température; des piles voltaïques construites avec des fils d'un même métal et même avec un seul fil, et de quelques Effets électriques qui naissent dans les combinaisons chimiques”, Ann. Chim., 23: 135-54.
SCHOENBEIN, Christian Friedrich (1839d): “Notice on some peculiar Voltaic Arrangements”, Phil. Mag., 15: 136-45.
SCHOENBEIN, Christian Friedrich (1839e): “Notice of new Electro-chemical Researches”, Rep. Brit. Ass., 31-4.
Please cite as “Faraday1185,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday1185