Faraday to George Biddell Airy   21 March 1857

[Royal Institution embossed letterhead] | Albemarle St. W. | 21. March 1857

My dear Sir

I thank you heartily for your two notes¹. It was very difficult to see what an interval of nearly an hour meant - but the identical time of the phenomena brings all together[.]

Nevertheless as an experimentalist I am thinking about the possibility of proving the existence of the Element of time in Magnetic phenomena:- and though we cannot look for hours or minutes or seconds, still even should it be so small as with light itself - there seems a possibility of ascertaining it.- All will depend upon the power we may have in diminishing the time of obstruction.- I acknowledge that I have not much hope; but a proof in the affirmative would be of such extreme value to the consideration of a force acting at a distance, that I think much labour & thought would not be thrown away in trying for it, even if the results should at last be negative[.]

Ever Truly Yours | M. Faraday

G.B. Airy Esqr | &c &c &c