William Stevenson to Faraday   5 March 1853

M. Faraday Esq | &c &c &c

Dunse, (N.B.) 5 March 1853

Dear Sir,

I have no objection to your bringing the substance of my communication under the notice of the Royal Institution¹. On the contrary I feel very much gratified that you consider it of so much interest.

I have for many years paid a good deal of attention to the phenomena of the Aurora & have often sent notices of the more remarkable displays to various public journals. Some of these have probably come under your notice. Mr. Glaisher² & I have had a good deal of correspondence regarding the connection of the Auroral displays seen here, with the disturbances of the magnetic instruments at Greenwich.

In 1840, I communicated to Sir D. Brewster some observations on the connection of cirri with Auroral phenomena. These were laid by him before the Phil. Society of St. Andrews³ & I have often since then sent similar communications to that body. As many of my observations bear upon the subject of atmospheric magnetism, and, on that account, would probably be of some interest to you, I shall have much pleasure in looking over my notes when I have a little leisure & extracting such obs[ervatio]ns as are likely to be of interest.

I may state that the communication referred to above as made in 1840, related chiefly to the tendency of cirri to effect a linear arrangement in the direction of the Magnetic meridian. For two or three years previous to 1840 I had been particularly struck by this tendency, which was all the more remarkable since the direction of the motion of these clouds was generally at right angles to that of the Mag. meridian. Exceptions, due principally to cyclonic movements of the atmosphere, were of pretty frequent occurrence, but from what I observed I was satisfied that the normal or undisturbed position of the long parallel lines of cirrus & cirrostratus coincided with that of the Mag. meridian. For some years I supposed that I had been the first to detect this magnetic tendency of these clouds. I was however surprised & gratified (tho’ it took from me all title in the eyes of the world to claim originality of discovery,) to find in the “Cosmos”, that its illustrious Author⁴ had remarked in South America, (under circumstances certainly much more favorable than are presented in our climate) the same tendency of cirri to an arrangement in “meridional bands”⁵.

I have at this moment an impression that for two or three years somewhere between 1840 & 1848, fine, regular displays of cirri were much rarer than for a year or two prior to 1840; but I must look into this matter.

I Remain | Dear Sir | With the Greatest Respect | Ever Faithfully Yours | Wm. Stevenson