Royal Institution | 24th April 1840
My dear Sir
Though a miserable correspondant I take up my pen to write to you, the moving feeling being a desire to congratulate you on your discernment, perseverance faithfulness & success in the course of chemical excitement of the current in the voltaic battery. You will think it is rather late to do so; but not under the circumstances[.] For a long time I had not made up my mind: then the facts of definite electrochemical action made me take part with the supporters of the chemical theories; and since then Marianinis paper1, with reference to myself, has made me read & experiment more generally on the point in question2. In the reading I was struck to see how soon, clearly, & constantly you had & have supported that theory and think your proofs & reasons most excellent & convincing. The constancy of Marianini & of many others on the opposite side made me however think it not unnecessary to accumulate and record evidence of the truth & I have therefore written two papers, which I shall send you when printed in which I enter under your banner as regards the origin of electricity or of the current in the pile3[.] My object in experimenting was, as I am sure yours has always been, not so much to support a given theory as to learn the natural truth and having gone to the question unbiassed by any prejudices I cannot imagine how any one whose mind is not preoccupied by a theory or a strong leaning to a theory can take part with that of contact against that of chemical action. However I am perhaps wrong in saying so much for as no one is infallible & as the experience of past times may teach us to doubt a theory which seems to be most unchangeably established so we cannot say what the future may bring forth in regard to these views[.]
I shall be anxious some day, if health continues, to make a few experiments on contact with the Electrometer[.] I know of your's4, Becquerels5 &c but if there are any dimensions which are particular or any precautions which as a practical man you are aware of & know render it more sensible, I am in hopes if you take the trouble to write to me hereafter you would not mind sending me a word or referring me to the papers or works which may mention them[.]
And now before I conclude let me ask you to remember me kindly to Madame de la Rive6 of whose good will & courtesy both I and my wife have a very strong remembrance7. I was not well during my journey at that time but still I have a great many pleasant recollections and amongst the most pleasant those of Geneva for which I am indebted to you[.]
I have several papers of your to acknowledge but I cannot recollect them so accurately as to thank you in order for them[.] I am always grateful & very glad to see them. Your historical account of your own researches as regards the battery8 has been very useful to me and makes me wish more & more that we had a sort of Index to Electrical science to which one might look for facts, their authors, and public dates. The man who could devise a good scheme for such an index so that it might take in new facts as they were discovered & also receive old and anticipating observations as they should gradually be remem‑bered & drawn forth from obscurity; would deserve well of all scientific men[.]
But I must conclude & am as ever My dear Sir Your | Obliged, Grateful & admiring friend M. Faraday
Address: Professor Auguste de la Rive | &c &c &c | Geneva
Postmark: Brighton
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.
FARADAY, Michael (1840a): “Experimental Researches in Electricity - Sixteenth Series. On the source of power in the voltaic pile”, Phil. Trans., 130: 61-91.
MARIANINI, Stefano Giovanni (1837): “Sulla teoria degli elettromotori Memoria IV. Esame di alcune sperienze addotte dal Signor Faraday per provare che l'elettricità Voltaica nasce dall'azione chimica dei liquidi sui metalli. Con un appendice sopra un'anomalia che presentano alcuni metalli nella decomposine del l'ioduro di potassio operata dall'elettricità”, Mem. Soc. Ital. Sci. Modena, 21: 205-45.
Please cite as “Faraday1262,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 29 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday1262