Faraday to Joseph John William Watson   8 September 1854

Surbiton | 8 Septr 1854

My dear Sir

I have received your letter of the 5th instant¹ in which you ask me to point out the paths for improvement in respect of the Electric light, so as to make it available for lighthouses. I am not able to do this:- because, having for many years thought of the light in relation to lighthouses, my expectations of its application generally, have become less and less. Had I seen any promising paths, I should have pursued them myself. I do not mean that others may not discover such, but only, that I am unable to point them out. This I may observe, that, many difficulties & obstructions appear & are known to me, who am by position aware of the requisites of the lighthouse service, which may appear as nothing to those unacquainted with these matters.

I have no objection to your knowing the grounds upon which I have reported to the Trinity House:- but my report² belongs to the Trinity House and I have no right over it. I am not aware how far it would be consistent with the correctness & general policy, for the Trinity house to give you a sight of the whole or part of the report; but I am sure that Mr Herbert will do all he can if you apply to him. Perhaps he could let you see it in his office.

I can easily understand that you, who are not aware of the care the lighthouse service needs, might think of and hope for, an experiment in a lighthouse. But a lighthouse is the last place in which an experiment should be made:- and if the Electric light ever rises to its application there, it must be after having been carried through & educated by other applications, where its failure or its variation would be of little comparative consequence. Great intensity of light, though very important in a lighthouse, is not nearly so important as constancy & certainty of action; extending over periods, not merely of hours, but of months and years. I once favoured the trial of a very promising proposition in a lighthouse. It not only cost a large sum of money and occasioned great labour & anxiety, but after many months of exertion, on my own part & that of others the apparatus had to be removed, for objections, less in force, in my opinion, than those which at present stand against the Electric light. The light is beautiful; and if it should be perfected hereafter so as to be in all points fitted for lighthouses generally, it may become of “national importance”:- but at present it is of great “national importance” that it should not be let into the lighthouses because of the extreme responsibility of the lighthouse system and the evils that would be occasioned by any derangement of its character & lowering of its action[.]

I am | My dear Sir | Very Truly Yours | M. Faraday

Dr. Joseph Watson | &c &c &c