Faraday to Arthur-Auguste De La Rive   28 January 1854

Royal Institution | 28 January 1854

My dear & kind friend

It seems a very long time since I wrote to or heard from you¹, but I have no doubt it has been my own fault. I often verify to myself the truth of an old school copy, “Procrastination is the thief of time”; and when I purpose to write it seems to me as if my thoughts now were hardly worth utterance to the men of persisting intellect & strength. But there are ties besides those of mere science and worldly relationship and I venture to think I have some such with you. These I can not easily relinquish for they grow dearer as other more temporal things dissolve away and though one cannot talk so often or so glibly about them because of their far more serious character still from time to time we may touch these cords and I shall think it a happiness whilst they respond and vibrate between us. Such ties exist but in few directions but they are worth all the rest[.]

I had a word from Schonbein a little while ago² and he called you to mind by speaking of his daughter who was I think then with you: and it called up afresh the thoughts of the place when very many years ago. I first saw it and your father³ [in] 1814 or 5 but the remembrances of that time are very shadowy with me⁴[.] Then came up the picture of the time when I and my wife were there with you⁵ and your happy family and a strong thought of the kindness I have had from your house through two generations and now comes the contemplation of these generations passing away[.] Surely though we have both had trials & deep ones yet we have also had great mercies & goodness shewn us; above all the great hope. May the year that we have entered be full of peace to you, - and sweet pleasure among your children[.]

I have lately had a subject brought before me, in electricity, full of interest. My account of it is in the printers hands & when I receive it I will send you a copy by post⁶[.] Briefly it is this. Copper telegraph wires are here covered perfectly with Gutta Percha so that hundreds of miles may be immersed in water and yet a very small discharge through the gutta percha occur when a very intense voltaic battery (300 or 400 pr of plates) is connected with it - 100 miles of such wire in water with the two exposed extremities insulated can be charged by one pole of a Voltaic battery and after separation from the battery for 5 or 10 minutes will give a shock or a current to the body or a galvanometer - or fire gunpowder or effect other electric actions either static or dynamic[.] The 100 mile[s] is in fact an immense Leyden jar & because the copper is 1/16 of an inch in diameter and the gutta percha 1/10 of an inch thick or 4/16 of an inch extreme diameter the surface of the copper or inner lining of the jar is equal to 8270 square feet & the outer coating or water surface equal to 33000 square feet. But besides this fact of a charge given, kept, and then employed, such a wire in water has its power of conveying electricity wonderfully affected - not its final power for that is the same - for that is the same for an equal length of the wire in air or in water but its power in respect of brief currents or waves of electric force even to the extent of making the time occupied in the transmission vary as 100 to 1 or more. In a few days you shall have the account. I do not know whether I have told you yet of the pleasure I had in your Vol. I⁷, but I long for Vol. II⁸[.] Many thanks for all your kindness in it & on every occasion[.]

Ever My dear De la Rive | Yours M. Faraday

Address: a Monsieur | Monsieur Aug de la Rive | &c &c &c &c | Geneva | Switzerland