Christian Friedrich Schoenbein to Faraday   23 March 1846

My dear Faraday

A favorable opportunity is just now offering itself for sending you some larger bits of my prepared paper. They will enable you to try its electrical power and other qualities. The degree to which it can be excited will perhaps astonish you and I should think that on this account it will prove an acceptable substance to electricians.

Ever | Your's | most truly | C.F. Schoenbein

Bâle March 23, 1846.

NB. My prep. paper being in a completely raw state it of course cannot look well. The thin one seems to be very fit for bank notes.

I open the letter to tell you that I have just now made some preliminary experiments about the explosive power of my prepared cotton and found that it is rather considerable¹. A common soldier's gun charged with the eighth part of an ounce only caused a pretty strong explosion[.] | S

It was most likely the first time that a gun had been fired by the means of cotton. That substance so advantageous to brother Jonathan² might one day prove dangerous to him, particularly as an easy means to cause wholesale conflagrations.

Address: Dr. Mich. Faraday | &c &c &c | Royal Institution | London.