Faraday to William Cotton1   19 March 1850

Royal Institution | 19 March 1850 My dear Sir

I am bound to think your thought a good one for it occupied me very much some years ago when I was engaged in searching for developments of Electricity[.] I then made many experiments on the effect of explosions but could not find any trace of the production of Electricity out of their sphere of chemical action: Still I will not say that it cannot be though I failed in obtaining my desire[.]

In the case of the Mills at Hounslow2 there was that interval of time between the explosions which seems rather to point to the passage of burning fragments or particles from place to place (thrown upwards & then falling down on the roofs &c) rather than to the instantaneous occurrence of an electric spark[.]

Ever | My dear Sir | Very Truly | M. Faraday

William Cotton Esq | &c &c &c

1
William Cotton (1786–1866, ODNB). Businessman and philanthropist.
2
For an account of the explosions at the gunpowder works in Hounslow see The Times, 12 March 1850, p.8, col.b and 13 March 1850, p.8, col.b.

Please cite as “Faraday2272a,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 26 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday2272a