Faraday to Peter Guthrie Tait1   30 November 1860

[Royal Institution embossed letterhead] | 30 Novr. 1860

My dear Sir

I shall be most happy to say or do any thing I can in the good cause of Science - whenever it suits you to proceed in the matter - if I am able to do so2. Simple questions I could answer at once but consideration I am afraid I could hardly until the year is out for I am slow now by reason of years & I have lectures to deliver at Christmas3[.]

I thank you for the way in which you have put the gravitation case it is just what I mean4. I have during the summer made expts on weights of 300lbs nearly at altitudes differing 160 or 170 feet - in relation to heat & Electricity of tension5[.]

But the results were negative & though I drew up a paper6 - still being negative - a good friend Mr Stokes7 advised me not to send it to the Royal Society8[.]

They are not decisive either one way or the other[.]

Ever Truly Yours | M. Faraday

P.G. Tait Esqr | &c &c &c

Peter Guthrie Tait (1831–1901, ODNB). Professor of Natural Philosophy, University of Edinburgh, 1860–1901.
Faraday (1861c).
Tait (1860), 32-4.
This was Faraday’s paper ‘Note on the possible relation of Gravity with Electricity or Heat’ dated 16 April 1860. There is a manuscript of this in RI MS F2, J286-90 where Faraday continued the paragraph numbering of the ‘Experimental Researches in Electricity’ series from 3300 to 3312. The opening part was published in Bence Jones (1870a), 2: 417-18. The paper was not formally noted as being received by the Royal Society in RS MS CMB 90d.
Not recorded in Faraday, Diary.
George Gabriel Stokes (1819–1903, ODNB). Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, University of Cambridge, 1849–1903. Secretary of the Royal Society, 1854–1885.
Stokes to Faraday, 8 June 1860, letter 3788, volume 5.

Bibliography

BENCE JONES, Henry (1870a): The Life and Letters of Faraday, 1st edition, 2 volumes, London.

FARADAY, Michael (1861c): A Course of Six Lectures on the Chemical History of a Candle; to which is added a Lecture on Platinum, London.

TAIT, Peter Guthrie (1860): The Position and Prospects of Physical Science. A Public Inaugural Lecture delivered on November 7, 1860, Edinburgh.

Please cite as “Faraday3913,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 28 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday3913