Royal Institution | 7 May 1840
Madam
Allow me to express my earnest & respectful thanks for your very kind note and for the memoranda from Monsieur Babinet2. That such a man should think any efforts of mine worthy his attention is very gratifying & encouraging & will not be I trust without its future influence. In consequence of your obliging offer I have ventured to write him a brief letter which I hope you will do me the honor of reading as expressive of my feelings on the matter in question. I imagine that Ampere with many others thought that currents might be induced but that he actually discovered them I have no idea[.] Arago's magnetic phenomena3 have more right to be considered as a prior discovery of the effect of induced electric currents than Arago's [sic] since about them there can be no doubt whereas of Amperes there may be[.]
With the highest respect I am Madam | Your Obliged & humble Servant | M. Faraday
Madam C.S. Desmonters
ARAGO, Dominique François Jean (1825): “L'action que les corps aimantés et ceux qui ne le sont pas exercent les uns sur les autres”, Ann. Chim., 28: 325-6.
Please cite as “Faraday1272,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday1272