Joseph Henry to Faraday   4 June 1851

Smithsonian Institution | June 4th 1851

My Dear Dr. F.

I owe you many thanks for your prompt attention to my enquiries relative to the lecture room of the Royal Institution and also for your very interesting letter of the 28th of april¹. It was received in Washington while I was absent on a visit to Cincinnati to attend an extra meeting of the American Association for the advance of science. This was my first visit to the great basin of the Mississippi and I have returned with ideas much expanded of the fertility, resources, and extent of this country. The site of Cincinnati was about fifty years ago a wilderness and it is now occupied by a city which contains 120,000 inhabitants. The houses are built of brick and free stone and the whole country around has the appearance of a long settle place[.] We, (Mrs. H², Bache³ and myself) returned by the way of Niagara Falls, a distance, from Cincinnati, of upwards of 1100 miles, which can now be travelled in three days by rail road and steam boat. Steam as a locomotive power is of great importance in every part of the world, but is no where of as much value as in this country. A friend of mine, one of the Judges of the supreme court of the U.S. has just returned to Washington after deciding 200 law cases and travelling 9000 miles since the 1st of March. I have also been much impressed with the effects produced by the telegraph; lines of which are now forming a net work over the whole inhabited part of the United States. In my late tour I could every where immediately communicate with Washington. On one occasion I held a conversation with a gentleman at a distance of 600 miles; the answers were immediately returned. In dry winter weather I am informed that communications can be sent immediately from Philadelphia to Louisville through 1200 miles of wire[.] This is effected by calling into action a series of batteries distributed along the line.

It would give me much pleasure to see Mrs. F. and yourself in this country and though in comparison with england we could show you nothing of much interest in the way of art, I think you would be gratified with the objects of nature. In our boasted improvements you might possibly be disappointed. An englishman and an american look on these things from different points of view & arrive at very different conclusions. The european finds cities here which in comparison with those he is familiar with in the old world often appear in no respect remarkable while the american after a few years absence returns to a place which he left a wilderness and finds it the site of a large and prosperous city. The one compares this country with the conditions of Europe as they now are the other this country with itself at different times and is astonished at the change.

I am pleased to learn that I still hold a place in the memory of Mrs. F. and yourself[.] The presentation of the daguerrotypes was a proposition of Mayall⁴ himself which I did not know he had carried into execution. I had some thoughts of going to London this summer but felt myself too poor to bear the expense of the voyage besides this I would not care to be there during the excitement of the great exhibition and indeed I would by far prefer seeing one of your recent experiments on Diamagnetism than all the contents of the crystal palace.

I send you a copy of an engraving of the Smithsonian building and also of a portrait of Smithson⁵ with whom I believe you were acquainted. I regret to say that the building, though picturesque, is not well adapted to the uses of the Institution. The architecture of the 12th century is not well adapted to the wants of the 19th. I consider the crystal palace the true architectural exponent of the feelings and wants of the present day.

Please give the accompanying draft to Mr Vulliamy and ask him to send me a receipt for the amount which may serve as my voucher. Please also to request the secretary of the Royal Institution⁶ to address any communications intended for me to Washington instead of Princeton my former residence.

With my best wishes for your | continued health and prosperity | I remain very Truly | your friend & servant | Joseph Henry

M. Faraday LLD