Royal Institution | 30 Decr. 1850
My dear Sir
It is with great pleasure that I receive a letter from you1, for much as I have thought of your name and the high scientific labours connected with it I do not remember that I have seen your handwriting before. I shall treasure the letter in a certain volume of Portraits & letters that I keep devoted to the personal remembrance of the eminent men who adorn science whom I have more or less the honour & delight of being acquainted with.
In reference to the Queries in your letter I suppose the following will be sufficient answer[.] I developed and published the nature & principles of the action of magnetic & diamagnetic media upon substances in them more or less magnetic or diamagnetic than themselves, in the year 1845, or just five years ago. The paper was read at the Royal Society2 8 Jany 1846, and is contained in the Philosophical Transactions for 1846 p.50, &c3[.] If you refer to the numbered Paragraphs 2357, 2363, 2367, 2400 &c, 2406, 2414, 2423, 2438 you will see at once how far I had gone at that date. The papers were republished in Pogendorf[f]s Annalen4 & I believe in the Geneva5, the Italian & German journals - in one form or another[.]
In reference to the Magnetism of Oxygen three years ago i.e in 1847, I showed its high magnetic character in relation to nitrogen & all other gases & that Air owed its place amongst them to the oxygen it contained. I even endeavoured to analyse the air, separating its oxygen & nitrogen by magnetic force for I thought such a result possible. All this you will find in a paper published in the Philosophical Magazine for 1847, vol xxxi, page 401, &c6. This paper was also published at full length in Poggendorf[f]s Annalen 1848, vol lxxiii, page 256, &c7. I shall send you a copy of it immediately by M. Bailliere8 who has undertaken to forward it to you. I have marked it in ink to direct your attention9. In it also you will find the effect of heat on oxygen, air &c. The experiments were all devised & made upon the principles before developed concerning the mutual relation of substances & the media surrounding them[.]
This year I have been busy extending the above researches & have sent in several papers to the Royal Society10 & have also given a Bakerian lecture in which they were briefly summed up11. I fortunately have a copy in slips of the Royal Society’s Abstract12 of these papers & therefore will send it with the paper from the Philosophical Magazine. I suppose it will appear in the out coming number of the Philosophical Magazine13[.] The Papers themselves are now in the hands of the Printer of the Transactions[.]
I was not aware until lately of that Paper of M. Edmond Becquerel to which you first refer. My health & occupation often prevent me from reading up to the present state of science[.] Immediately that I knew of it I added a note (by permission) to my last paper Series xxvi, in which I referred to it & quoted at length what it said in reference to atmospheric magnetism calling attention also to my own results as to oxygen three years ago & those respecting media five years ago14. I have no copy of this note or I would send it to you. It was manifest to me that M. Edmond Becquerel had never heard of my results and though that makes no excuse to myself I hope it will be to him a palliation that I had not before heard of his. The second one I had not heard of until I received your letter the day before yesterday. I was exceedingly struck with the beauty of M. E. Becquerels experiments and though the differential balance I have described in my last papers will I expect give me far more delicate indications when the perfect one which is in hand is completed still I cannot express too freely my praise of the apparatus & results which the first paper describes & which is probably surpassed by those in the second.
I know the severe choice of Your Academy of Sciences and I also know that France has ever been productive of Men who deserve to stand as candidates whenever a vacancy occurs in any branch of knowledge & though as you perceive I do not know all that M. E. Becquerel has done, I know enough to convince me that he deserves the honour of standing in that body & to create in me strong hopes that he will obtain his place there.
Ever My dear M. Becquerel, Your faithful admirer, | M. Faraday
Address: A Monsieur | Monsieur Becquerel | Membre de l Academie des Sciences | &c &c &c &c | Jardin des Plantes | à Paris
BECQUEREL, Alexandre-Edmond (1850a): “De l’action du magnétisme sur tous les corps”, Ann. Chim., 28: 283-350.
FARADAY, Michael (1846c): “Experimental Researches in Electricity. - Twenty-first Series. On new magnetic actions, and on the magnetic condition of all matter - continued”, Phil. Trans., 136: 41-62.
FARADAY, Michael (1846d): “Mémoires sur de nouvelles actions magnétiques et sur l'état magnétique de toute la matière”, Bibl. Univ. Arch., 2: 42-55, 145-64.
FARADAY, Michael (1847a): “Ein und zwanzigste Reihe von Experimental-Untersuchungen über Elektricität”, Pogg. Ann., 70: 24-59.
FARADAY, Michael (1847b): “On the Diamagnetic conditions of Flame and Gases”, Phil. Mag., 31: 401-21.
FARADAY, Michael (1848b): “Ueber die diamagnetischen Eigenschaften der Flamme und der Gase”, Pogg. Ann., 73: 256-86.
FARADAY, Michael (1851b): “Experimental Researches in Electricity. - Twenty-fourth Series. On the possible relation of Gravity to Electricity”, Phil. Trans., 141: 1-6.
FARADAY, Michael (1851d): “Experimental Researches in Electricity. - Twenty-sixth Series. Magnetic conducting power. Atmospheric magnetism”, Phil. Trans., 141: 29-84.
Please cite as “Faraday2364,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 30 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday2364