John Dalton to Faraday   3 September 1840

September 3d, 1840.

Dear Friend

Dr Faraday,

I have been from home more than a week in Cumberland, having Peter Clare1 with me & my servant man, partly on business & partly on pleasure & on account of my health.

I am sorry to find you are in the same predicament as to health. You have not been injured as to Lead, as I was in London? Lead in Porter & lead in water was my beverage. I was more than a year in getting rid of this complaint in 18042.

My recent attack of paralysis was from extreme cold. Being at York & Chester on trials; I was subject in winter to the extremity of cold, & being temperate & regular in my meals, I was subject to irregularities in present situation, which were too much for me.

I shall be obliged to you for copies of my papers on Phosphates & Arseniates, at my expense3; they are not long: I suppose 20 or 30 Shillings will be the extremity. I want to publish them forthwith. I have copies, but verbatim I shall not say.

I observe the Council have voted the Rev. Mr Farquharson['s]4 paper as fit for publication in the 2d part of 18395. The height of the aurora was 1897 yards, or rather above 1 Mile. I calculated it 100 to 160 Miles (1828)6. Mr. Cavendish 52 to 71 Miles, (1790)7, Robert Were Fox, 1000 Miles (1831)8[.] This would be an interesting Phenomenon to the British association whether its height was 1 - or 1000 Miles.

I am your friend | John Dalton


Address: Dr. Faraday D.C.L. | Royal Institution | Albemarle Street Piccadilly | London

1
Peter Clare (1781-1851, B1). Secretary of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, 1821-1842.
2
That is when Dalton was lecturing at the Royal Institution. See Roscoe (1895), 164-6.
3
See note 1, letter 1302.
4
James Farquharson (1781-1843, DNB). Scientific writer.
5
Farquharson (1839).
6
Dalton (1828).
7
Cavendish (1790).
8
Fox (1831).

Bibliography

CAVENDISH, Henry (1790): “On the Height of the luminous Arch which was seen on Feb. 23, 1784”, Phil. Trans., 80: 101-5.

DALTON, John (1828): “On the height of the Aurora borealis above the surface of the earth; particularly one seen on 29th of March, 1826”, Phil. Trans., 118: 291-302.

FARQUHARSON, James (1839): “Report of a Geometrical Measurement of the Height of the Aurora Borealis above the Earth”, Phil. Trans., 129: 267-80.

FOX, Robert Were (1831): “On the Variable Intensity of Terrestrial Magnetism, and the Influence of the Aurora Borealis upon it”, Phil. Trans., 121: 199-207.

ROSCOE, Henry Enfield (1895): John Dalton and Rise of Modern Chemistry, London.

Please cite as “Faraday1311,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday1311