Faraday to Charles Richard Weld   26 February 18481

R Institution | 26 Feby 1848

My dear Sir

I return you the E paper2 but even with the drawings I cannot understand what the precise meaning is or even in all cases the general arrangement. The apparatus first described is only Lanes3 Electrometer4 with apparently an undescribed imperfect conductor accidentally interposed. The analogy between the series of Leyden Jars & the Voltaic battery does not as described appear to me to be correct. The reference to atmospheric phenomena is insufficient because in the series of Jars there are two insulating substances acting very different parts, the glass of the Jars & the air at the planes of discharge whereas in the atmosphere there is air only[.]

If the author could arrange his coatings (to be charged) as a series in the air only or arranged his Leyden Jars so that the ball of one touched the coating of the next then the resemblance to the alternate zones in the air would be better, but then the effects which I conclude he depends upon do not occur.

I have made a few marks in pencil in the margin of the paper which I consider as a part of this note for the present. Have the goodness to remove them when you have satisfied your mind[.]

Ever Truly Yours | M. Faraday

C.R. Weld Esq | &c &c &c


Endorsed: Report on Mr Bagge's5 [sic] paper

1
This letter is black-edged. See note 10, letter 2046.
2
Isham Baggs, "On the Disruptive Discharge of accumulated Electricity, and the Proximate Cause of Lightning", RS MS AP 30.1. This paper was read to the Royal Society on 13 January 1848, Proc.Roy.Soc., 1848, 5: 731-2. The paper was Archived. RS MS CMB 90c, 20 July 1848.
3
Timothy Lane (1734-1807, P1). London pharmacist.
4
Lane (1767).
5
Unidentified.

Bibliography

LANE, Timothy (1767): “Description of an Electrometer”, Phil. Trans., 57: 451-60.

Please cite as “Faraday2056,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday2056