Christian Friedrich Schoenbein to Faraday   27 February 1846

My dear Faraday

Amid the glories of your really grand and admirable discovery I venture to trouble you with a comparatively insignificant and prosaic subject. I have of late also made a little chemical discovery which enables me to change very suddenly, very easily and very cheaply common paper in such a way as to render that substance exceedingly strong and entirely water proof. Inclosed you will find a specimen of paper of the said description and a sample of common paper out of which the former has been prepared. In throwing the prepared paper into water you will easily convince yourself that it stands the action of that fluid for any length of time without loosing in the least its leatherlike toughness. Paper which has been lying in water for many days is still as tenacious as it was in the beginning. The same sort of paper being written on allows to be laid up in water strongly acidulated with muriatic acid and freed in that way from its ink without receiving the slightest injury or leaving the least trace of the letters. The most brittle and thinnest paper after having, for a few seconds only, been exposed to the action of my agent, becomes very tough, substantial and water proof. Hence it follows that in employing my process, out of the same quantity of rags a much larger number of sheets of paper can be manufactured than it is possible to do in following up the present way of making paper without diminishing the strength of the production. Another essential advantage connected with my method of preparing paper is that the injurious effects produced by chloride of lime are entirely paralysed by it. My prepared paper can be easily written and printed upon. Paper enjoying the properties mentioned is to my opinion a valuable substance and in many respects very superior to common paper, it ought therefore to be manufactured on a large scale. My process of giving common paper those properties being of a very easy application and very cheap too, I do not see any reason why it should not be made use of at once. I am of course desirous of turning if possible the discovery alluded to to some account in favour of a certain poor schoolmaster of Bâle, who in the interest of science is rather anxious to get a little more independent, than he is now. To obtain that end I ask you the favour to grant me your kind advice regarding that affair. You are perhaps connected with some first-rate british paper manufacturer or it lies in your power to put me in communication with one or some of them.

Before long you will hear of some other little chemical exploits I have of late performed; they consist principally in remarkable transformations of the most common vegetable substances. These and other things I found out in making researches on my favorite subject, ozone.

Pray present Mrs. Schoenbein's compliments and my own to your Lady[.] Favor me soon with an answer to this letter and believe me

Your's | most sincerely | C.F. Schoenbein

Bâle Febr. 27, 1846.

Address: Doctor M. Faraday | &c &c &c | Royal Institution | London