John Percy to Faraday   30 March 18551

[Royal Institution embossed letterhead] | 5¼ P:M:

My dear Dr Faraday,

Enclosed is a specimen of aluminium obtained from Cryolite (Fluoride of aluminium & sodium). It is separated very easily by heating with sodium, and should it be desirable to manufacture the metal, & seems not unlikely that the material in question,- which I believe is pretty abundant in Greenland,- will be a good ore of aluminium. The little strip of metal herewith sent is, so far as I know, the first specimen which has been prepared from Cryolite. Should you think it of sufficient interest to appear upon your table this evening pray put it there. The exhibition of it may possibly have the effect of preventing patentees (who, I am told, are already busy about aluminium) from establishing a claim to its production from Cryolite. The specimen was prepared by my assistant Mr. A. Dick2.

Ever yours sincerely | John Percy

Dr Faraday

1
Dated on the basis of the reference to aluminium which Faraday mentioned following the Friday Evening Discourse of 30 March 1855. See Proc.Roy.Inst., 1855, 2: 79.
2
Allan Brugh Dick (1833–1926, Trans.Edinb.Geol.Soc., 1927, 12: 165-8. Percy’s assistant at the Royal School of Mines, 1851–1856.

Please cite as “Faraday2960a,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday2960a