Faraday to John Lindley   27 December 18491

Royal Institution | 27 Decr. 1849.

My dear Lindley

Mr. Chater2 has placed in my hands certain documents from which I make a selection imagining that you will think them quite enough. Take care of them as I have made myself responsible for their return. I will call on you on Saturday3 about 1/2 past 11 o’clk as I understand that time is convenient to you.

No. 1. Mr. Chaters letter to me.

No. 2. Act Geo III, 1794, page 4314 “blown plate or cast plate glass” shewing that both were plate. Cast plate was not made here until about 1770 hence blown plate which was made long before that is named first[.]

No. 3. Act Geo III 1805, page 14815, “rough plate glass and ground or polished plate or crown glass” - shewing the meaning of rough in contradistinction to ground or polished.

No. 4. Act Geo III, 1809 p7336. - As No. 3.

No. 5 and 6 Two bills of the London Plate Glass company dated 1809 with numerous items of rough plate and plates - they making only blown plate glass.

No. 7. Tariff of the London Plate Glass company 1812 pp. 20, 21. “rough Plates” they still making only blown plate glass. In 1814 they began to make cast plate glass and accordingly issue a Supplement[.]

No. 8. of the larger sizes which they could then produce.

No. 9 Mr. Cookson’s7 letter and testimony that there was no cast plate glass before 1773 but blown plate 100 years previous:- blown rough plates a common article in this country before cast plate glass made.

No. 10. Cooksons Tariff for 18128. At the end “thick rough plates for skylights”. They did not cast any plate glass at that time or earlier than 1817.

No. 11. Mr. Chance’s testimony on a piece of glass:- that rough blown plate was known and in common use in this country before cast plate was made here[.]

No. 12. Letter. Peter Howard9 - a glass maker for 50 years to the same purport[.]

No. 13. Letter Mr. Sims10 a glass dealer for 46 years to the same purport.

On Saturday I will bring with me a very scarce book called the Plate Glass book printed & published in 1760 11 i.e. about 13 years before Plate glass was cast in England in which the term rough plate is familiarly used over & over again, in the Title page, in the tables, and in above ten different parts of the work.

Ever Truly Yours | M. Faraday

Dr. Lindley | &c &c &c

1
John Lindley (1799-1865, DSB). Professor of Botany at University College London, 1828-1860.
2
Presumably of Chater and Hayward. Glass, lead, oil and colour merchants. POD.
3
That is 30 December 1849.
4
34 Geo III, Cap. 27 “An Act for Granting to His Majesty certain additional Duties on Glass imported into, or made in, Great Britain”, p.431.
5
45 Geo III, Cap. 122 “An Act for charging additional Duties on the Importation of Foreign Plate Glass into Great Britain”, p.1481.
6
49 Geo III, Cap. 98 “An Act for repealing the several Duties of Customs chargeable in Great Britain, and for granting other Duties in lieu thereof”, p.733.
7
Isaac Cookson (1776-1851, B1). Newcastle glass manufacturer.
8
For the interest of the Cookson family in glass manufacturing see Hedley and Hudleston [1964], 23-4.
9
Unidentified.
10
Robert Sims (d.1864, age 81, GRO). Sandemanian and plate glass merchant.
11
A later edition of Anon (1757) which went through many editions.

Bibliography

ANON (1757): The Plate-Glass-Book, London.

Please cite as “Faraday2244,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 2 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday2244