Faraday to William Thomson   8 August 1845

R Institution | 8 August 1845

Dear Sir

I hasten to acknowledge & thank you for your letter1. I reply thus speedily only in reference to your enquiries in the latter part of it[.]

I have made many experiments on the probable attraction of dielectrics. I did not expect any nor did I find any & yet I think that some particular effect (perhaps not attraction or repulsion) ought to come out when the dielectric is not all of the same inductive capacity but consists of parts having different inductive capacity[.]

I have also worked much on the state of the dielectric as regards polarized light and you will find my negative results at paragraphs 951-955 of my Experimental Researches2. I purpose resuming this subject hereafter3. I also worked hard upon crystalline dielectrics to discover some molecular conditions in them (See Par. 1688 &c &c)4 but could get no results except negative[.] Still I firmly believe that the dielectric is in a peculiar state whilst induction is taking place across it[.]

I am | My dear Sir | Yours Very Truly | M. Faraday

Wm. Thomson Esq | &c &c &c

2
Faraday (1834c), ERE8, 951-5.
3
Which Faraday did. Faraday, Diary, 30 August, 1, 4, 5 September 1845, 4: 7434-7497. He still found a nil result. See James (1985), 144-5 for a discussion of this.
4
Faraday (1838d), ERE14, 1688-98.

Bibliography

FARADAY, Michael (1834c): “Experimental Researches in Electricity. - Eighth Series. On the Electricity of the Voltaic Pile; its source, quantity, intensity, and general characters”, Phil. Trans., 124: 425-70.

FARADAY, Michael (1838d): “Experimental Researches in Electricity. - Fourteenth Series. Nature of the electric force or forces. Relation of the electric and magnetic forces. Note on electric excitation”, Phil. Trans., 128: 265-82.

JAMES, Frank A.J.L. (1985): “'The Optical Mode of Investigation': Light and Matter in Faraday's Natural Philosophy” in Gooding and James (1985), 137-61.

Please cite as “Faraday1767,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday1767