Heinrich Rose to Faraday   27 October 1846

My dear Sir

I profit of the departure of Mr. Horsford1, who passes through England in returning to America, to send you the new metals Niobium, Pelopium and also Tantalum. I must mention, that they are made already two years ago and at that time I could not yet prepare there [word illegible] as pure as now. Therefore I suppose the Pelopium contains still a little Niobium, and the Niobium a little Pelopium2. You wish for these metals to examine if they belong to the magnetic or to the diamagnetic substances3. I suppose by their likeness with the Titanium, that they may belong perhaps to the magnetic metals.

I send you also all the Aluminium et Beryllium which I possess, observing that they are no leadeur [sic] of common electricity, as very likely they contain Alumina and Berylla.

With great pleasure I remember your kindness against me and I shall never forget the influential hours, which I spent in your laboratory. We enjoyed so much kindness during our stay in England that for ever I shall feel obliged to you and your countrymen. Mrs. Rose4 sends her best compliments to Mrs. Faraday and yourself, in which I join from all my heart. Give also my compliments to Mr. Morsson, Redwood5 and Francis6, if you please, in meeting them. Believe me, my dear friend your most sincerely

Henry Rose

Berlin | Octob. 27, 1846

Have the kindness to give my thanks to Mr. Brockedon7 for the artificial Graphit, which I received just before my leaving London.


Address: Professor M. Faraday | Royal Institution | London.

1
Eben Norton Horsford (1818-1893, DAB). American chemist who had studied with Liebig for two years. For Horsford's account of his visit to Faraday see Rezneck (1970), 380.
2
For an account of the discoveries of these elements see Weeks and Leicester (1968), 323-51, especially 346-7 for Rose's work. Rose later found that Pelopium was spurious. ibid., 347.
3
Faraday did not examine these metals for nearly a year. See Faraday, Diary, 23 October 1847, 5: 9060-5.
4
Unidentified.
5
Theophilus Redwood (1806-1892, B3). Professor of Chemistry and Pharmacy at the Pharmaceutical Society, 1846-1885.
6
William Francis (1817-1904, Brock and Meadows (1984), 97-128). Publisher.
7
William Brockedon (1785-1854, DNB). Painter, author and inventor. For his graphite see Petroski (1989), 134-5.

Bibliography

PETROSKI, Henry (1989): The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance, New York.

REZNECK, Samuel (1970): “The European Education of an American Chemist and Its Influence in 19th-Century America: Eben Norton Horsford”, Tech. Cult., 11: 366-88.

Please cite as “Faraday1923,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday1923