Edward Sabine to Faraday   11 November 1852

Woolwich, Nov. 11, ‘52

Dear Faraday

I return Mr Wolf’s german letter¹ with thanks. The french letter² shall be given to Mr Christie for communication³. Humboldt wrote me some time since an account of Mr. Wolfe’s discovery of the connexion between the Magnetic variations & the solar spots, & remarked that I had preceded him in publication by between 4 & 5 months⁴: and I have reason to believe that he will notice my priority in his forthcoming vol. of Cosmos⁵, which I am glad of, as the thing itself has excited but little interest in this country, & foreign countries are not always ready to do justice to a man of a country which is comparatively regardless, of a matter in which they take a far greater interest. I believe that I have a claim to be considered as the first announcer of the probable existence of a secular magnetic period in the Sun.

Mr. Wolf has been forestalled by Lamont in the period of the variations of the magnetic declination⁶. By myself in the period of the variations of the magnetic dip & total force, & in the period of the supposed irregular disturbances or storms - and in the coincidence of these periods with that of the solar spots. There remains to him of original suggestion therefore the examination of the earlier solar spot observations from the time of Fabricius⁷, & their connection with the recent far more ample research of Schwabe a supposed correction of the period from 10.33 to 11.11 years - the suggestion of a connexion between the solar spots & variable stars, which would be indeed surprising, as one cannot well see how the solar spots are to affect beyond the solar system, & it would seem to make the solar magnetic period only one phenomenon of a general cosmical magnetic period. The proof of the years of maximum solar spots being years of dryness & fertility would seem to be very difficult to establish if the proof is to extend, as it ought to do, over the surface of the Globe generally. I should doubt greatly whether this will prove more than a mere speculation.

The connexion between the appearance of Aurora & the magnetic storms has long since been established - the greater frequency of the storms carries with it therefore the greater frequency of Aurora.

Robinson⁸ at Belfast⁹ suggested that the variable light of the stars might be analogous to the solar spots, as indicative of a magnetic period, but not the same period for sun & stars[.]

Sincerely yours | Edward Sabine