William Henry Smyth to Faraday   13 December 18451

3 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, | 13th Decr. 1845.

My dear Sir,

I fully expected to have been able to call on you this morning, but having to see a Lawyer in situ - Chancery Lane - I was unable. You will naturally ask - What the deuce I wanted to disturb you for? - & I must briefly reply as follows -

Know then, as I was passing into the Royal Society's Rooms last Thursday evening2, a special messenger served me with a missive from Sir John Ross3, of Polar celebrity, who directed me to place the same before the President & Council of the Royal Society. Thus "pressed" I read the Missive, & forthwith shewed it to Lord Northampton, thinking I had then shot the bolt, - but no, his Lordship directed me to fill up the prayer by placing it before the next R.S. Council: so I passed it on to Mr. Christie.

You ask - What has all this to do with you? Why I'll tell you. The Captain makes a reclamation of Magnetized Light!! & quotes chapter & verse for it4. Laud we the Gods!

Such is the mighty matter which I panted to communicate, & now - as I may chant Liberavi animum meum5 - believe me always Your's very truly, | W.H. Smyth

No season can be too early or too late for the expression of one's good wishes, I therefore beg to tender my sincere hopes that you will have a happy Christmas & New Year.

1
William Henry Smyth (1788-1865, DNB). Retired naval captain and astronomer.
2
That is 11 December 1845.
3
Ross to Smyth, 10 December 1845, RS CM, 15 January 1846, 1: 512-3.
4
Ross based his claim on observations he had made of the behaviour of compass needles at high latitudes during his Arctic voyage in the early 1830s. These observations included the needle following the path of the sun: "I have therefore concluded, that light, of whatever kind, has the property of combining with the magnetic influence", Ross, J. (1835), XLVI. See also Parliamentary Papers, 1834 <(250)> 18, p.12. For a short account of this episode see Ross, M.J. (1994), 313-4.
5
Actually "Liberavi animam meam". "I have unburdened my soul", from Bernard of Clairvaux, Epistle 371.

Bibliography

ROSS, John (1835): Appendix to the Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a North-West Passage, and of a Residence in the Arctic Regions during the years 1829, 1830, 1831, 1832, 1833, London.

Please cite as “Faraday1801,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 2 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday1801