James Thomson to Faraday   30 July 1858

6, Franklin Place, | Belfast, 30th July, 1858.

Sir,

At the request of my brother Professor William Thomson of Glasgow College, I take the liberty of sending to you the enclosed abstract of a Paper “On the Effect of Pressure in Lowering the Freezing Point of Water and on the Plasticity of Ice”1[.]

The theory explained in this paper, as you will observe by a clause near the conclusion of the abstract, I consider affords a satisfactory explanation of the interesting property of ice to which you directed attention2;- that separate masses of ice laid in contact with one another, will, even in hot weather unite or freeze firmly to-gether.

I am Sir, | Your obedient servant, | James Thomson

Professor of Civil Engineering | Queen’s College | Belfast.

Professor Faraday | Royal Institution London.

1
This seems to have been privately printed which was common practice at this time for the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society where this paper was read on 20 December 1857 (private communication from Peter Bowler). There is a proof copy in IET MS SC 2.
2
Athenaeum,15 June 1850, pp.640-1 which contains an account of Faraday’s Friday Evening Discourse of 7 June 1850, “Certain Conditions of Freezing Water”.

Please cite as “Faraday3492,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday3492