Faraday to Charles Grey   20 October 1854

Royal Institution | 20 Octr. 1854

My dear Sir

There is a Gentleman in town at present from Paris, M. Leon Foucault1 who has some most beautiful apparatus & experiments connected with a matter which I know has interested his Royal Highness Prince Albert very much namely the fixity in space of a rotating disc2. I have just seen the results & gone into the proofs they give of the Rotation of the earth independent of astronomical considerations3. I leave you to judge whether it is expedient to place the matter under His Royal Highness’s observation4. M. Foucault is a perfect gentleman[.] His apparatus is portable. If the Prince should desire to see the results M. Foucault would require only a steady table & perhaps a previous half hour to take his apparatus out of the boxes. The chief experiments which are several & very interesting could be made & explained briefly in twenty minutes or even less but their relation to the earth & its phenomena easily extend to a longer time with those interested in the matter. M. Foucault is residing at present with his friend Dr. Mussy5 14 Clifford Street Bond St[.]

I have the honor to be | My dear Sir | Your Very humble Servant | M. Faraday

The Honorable | Genl. Grey | &c &c &c

1
Jean Bernard Léon Foucault (1819-1868, DSB). French physicist.
2
See letters 2838 and 2839.
3
Foucault (1851).
4
See “Court circular”, Times,27 October 1854, p.6, col.f, which noted Foucault’s demonstration before Prince Albert the previous day.
5
Probably Henri Guéneau de Mussy (1814-1892, B2). French physician who lived in England between 1848 and 1872.

Bibliography

FOUCAULT, Jean Bernard Léon (1851): “Démonstration physique du mouvement de rotation de la terre au moyen du pendule”, Comptes Rendus, 32: 135-8.

Please cite as “Faraday2913,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday2913