Warren De La Rue to Faraday   9 February 1856

London, 110 Bunhill Row. | Feby 9th 1856

My dear Mr. Faraday,

Subsequent experiments have shewn me that we were a little too impatient the other day1:- the solution of gold I now have, and of which you have a portion gives films, but they are much thicker than those first obtained by me - and I fail even now in getting thin ones. A little free hydrochloric acid very much modifies the colour of a neutral solution of the chloride, and is apt to cause the gold to become crystalline, but I have not yet succeeded in so tempering the solution so as to get the first degree of tenuity.

One important result of our failure is this that I obtain films so thick that they may be as well lifted up on the copper with the long hole as gold leaf - and on Monday2 I will endeavour to thicken some by Voltaic means and let you know the result.

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Glass, Clock-glasses; Chas. Wm. Price. 20 Clerkenwell Green3

Gold Leaf (our man) Law No 1-2 Northside Bethnal Green4

Glass Plates Edward & Wm. H. Jackson, 315 Oxford Street5

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I find that bad as my memory is that I was right and that we have another broken spindle similar to one we have turned down to make a cone for you - if you will kindly let me know its diameter and length I will make this one the same; it is now being softened (annealed). We have moreover a broken square spindle 27 inches long which will plane up to 4⅛ square and this might be cut off to the length you desire bent to make a good horse shoe by combining with the two cones, and we might perhaps get enough for two ends besides.

diagram

I had the bottle of liquor with suspended gold in it - the copper plates I retain for a day or two in the hope of giving you some films on them.

I am Very truly Yours | Warren De La Rue

Faraday was at De La Rue’s on 6 February 1856. Faraday, Diary,6 February 1856, 7: 14319.
That is 11 February 1856.
Charles William Price. Coloured glass merchant of 20 Clerkenwell Green. POD.
John Law. Gold beater of 3-4 Northside, Bethnal Green. POD.
Edward and William H. Jackson. Glass merchants of 315 Oxford Street. POD.

Please cite as “Faraday3085,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 28 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday3085