George Wilson to Faraday   29 March 1850

March 29, 1850 | 24 Brown Square Edinb

Michael Faraday D.C.L. &c &c

Sir

I trust you will forgive the liberty I take in addressing you, although personally unknown to you. Mr George Buchanan kindly offered me an introduction two years ago, but I have always felt so reluctant to occupy your valuable time that I have never availed myself of his kindness. The visit, however, of my friend Dr Stenhouse1 to London induces me to trouble you with the copy of a paper2, with a view to ask your answer to this question “Is it possible to render a gas absolutely anhydrous?” I do not use the word absolutely in an unqualified sense as excluding the possibility of moisture being present through the practical difficulties attending the realisation of the drying process; but as referring to the sufficiency of the process could it be realised in practice. In other words are our present methods of drying gases, theoretically perfect, & fitted to secure the deprivation of moisture, or are they essentially imperfect and from their nature certain to leave a certain amount of water in every gas?

My object in asking the question, is to request your advice as to the best method of drying gases, with a view to its application to researches resembling those recorded in the accompanying paper. If you would kindly glance at your leisure at Section V, page 4893, entitled “On the methods applicable to the drying of gases” you would see in the compass of some two pages, the difficulty which has arrested my researches, and which your great experience in the liquefaction of gases, probably enables you to remove.

I know too well your many occupations to wonder if it is out of your power, to write a reply. But, perhaps, you will find time to send a verbal message through Dr Stenhouse, if unable to write. I have enclosed two other papers and remain

Your Obedient Servant | George Wilson

John Stenhouse (1809-1880, DNB). Scottish chemist.
Wilson (1848).
Ibid.,489-92.

Bibliography

WILSON, George (1848): “On the Action of the Dry Gases on Organic Colouring Matters, and its relation to the Theory of Bleaching”, Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinb., 16: 475-95.

Please cite as “Faraday2276,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 28 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday2276