Faraday to Moritz Hermann Jacobi   17 August 1839

Royal Institution | London | 17 August 1839

My dear Sir

Your letter¹ was an honor & a kindness of which I had no expectation; and I thank you most heartily for it[.] I only wish I had in answering it good news like you own to send but mine will be a very poor letter in comparison with yours for I have not been strong enough of late to work much and have nothing at present to tell[.] I felt so much interest in your letter & the great results of which you gave me so good an account that I have translated it & sent it almost entire to the Editors of the Philosophical Magazine hoping that they will think it fit news for their readers². I trust I have not offended you in this but I wished others to know of your results as well as myself[.] Somehow or other our means of communication are so bad that we obtain the news from the North of Europe in a very imperfect way, and I who unfortunately do not read German & am too old to learn it am in sad ignorance of the great things in Electrical Science which are described in that language.

I shall hope as soon as convenient to hear in one way or another further results of your exertions especially as regards the application to mechanical purposes & I most fervently wish that your great exertions should meet with the high reward they so richly deserve[.] Of course I am a little desirous of know‑ing the probable expence of the power obtained but I am also aware that in first applications the cost is no guide to the price at which the power may ultimately be obtained. To think only of putting an electro magnetic machine into the Great Western or the British Queen & sending them across the Atlantic by it or even to the East Indies! what a glorious thing it would be.

The plates too which you sent me are very kind & complimentary but they are also both in theory & practise exceedingly beautiful & all who have seen them here admire them, and as to your Drummond Light³ your account is most exciting. I hope you will soon let us know how your battery is constructed, and also the arrangement of the other part of the apparatus[.]

Will you do me the favour to mention me to M M. Lenz⁴ & Parrot⁵ as also to M Fuss⁶. I do not know them personally or by letter⁷ but by their labours I do - and beg to present my sincere respects[.]

I have lately put my Researches (which are getting old fashioned & out of date so fast does electricity progress) into a collected form - they make an 8vo volume⁸[.] I beg to offer a copy to you for your kind acceptance & shall give it into the hands of Mr Hudson at the Royal Society to send by the first oppor‑tunity with the Transactions of the R. Society - I hope you will receive it safe[.]

I am My dear Sir | Your Very Obliged & most faithful Servant | M. Faraday

Dr. Jacobi | &c &c &c &c

Address: Dr. M.H. Jacobi | &c &c &c | Imperial Academy of Sciences | Petersburgh | Russia