John Peter Gassiot to Faraday   26 December 1845

Clapham Common | 26 Decr 1845

My Dear Faraday

I cannot allow yr. note of the 24' In. to remain over without an early reply. if I have not as yet been among those of yr friends who have hastened to congratulate you on your recent discoveries - I can nevertheless assure you that I have not been the less an admirer of the same, besides there are some circumstances that may probably have escaped yr recollection but which have tended to impress them rather more strongly on mine.

Do you recollect my shewing you some apparatus which I had had made for examining Electrolytes under polarized light? - you said to me go on - try it in every shape - place the Electrolyte within a coil - I did so but not succeeding, I continued my Experiments in another Manner - and subsequently handed all my apparatus over to Grove - who afterwards conducted his Exps at the London Institution - he tells me that I did not name yr suggestion of the Coils but that during the progress of his Exps the same idea occurred to him and that like myself he did not use sufficiently powerful apparatus[.]

When I first heard of yr discovery all the foregoing came to my recollection and I know few things that have given me greater delight than when I found it had fallen in yr hands - had I followed out your suggestion as I ought to have done, I must have succeeded and there the discovery might have ended - in your hands it is only a commencement. Remember me most kindly to Mrs Faraday, tell her to take care of you, and not to allow you to work too hard, as I have told you before you are public property and I as one of that select body claim a right to make such a suggestion. Whenever you feel inclined to pay me a visit do so, and I hope you will bring Mrs Faraday with you. I need not say how glad Mrs Gassiot¹ will be to see her - as for any apparatus I have you know it is all at your service I shall therefore say no more on that subject - and now for a favor for myself - a literary friend of mine is most anxious to obtain the addition of yr. autograph to a collection he has been making for the last 3 or 4 years and which now contains some of the most eminent for Science & Literature in Europe - they are all written within the red lines of similar papers as I now enclose for insertion in a Book properly prepared. Some have sent him various lines or extracts from their own or other publications and others their family motto it is I assure you a most beautiful collection.

Believe Me | My Dear Sir | Most sincerely yours | John Gassiot

Dr Faraday | &c &c &c