Faraday to Charles Lutwidge Dodgson1   7 January 1861

[Royal Institution embossed letterhead] | 7 January 1861

Dear Sir

I am very much obliged by your kindness is sending me a result of your photographic work. As I depend much more upon the opinion of my friends than my own I shall learn what they think of it as I have occasion to shew it to them2[.]

As to your questions you will find the full answer in books but shortly I may say to

No. 1 that capillary attraction is not confined to hair like tubes but is shewn by all surfaces that wet by the liquid in contact with them as well as by the particles of a liquid one to the other in the wick of a candle it is the cotton & the melted fuel that shews this attraction by the effects & cause the fluid to rise – but there is much motion in the particles of the fluid due to the difference of temperature in different parts of the wick[.]

2. The ammonia comes from the cheese evolved by a slow action analogous to decay. You may see the attempts to explain it in the various works on Organic chemistry.

3. It has not as yet been clearly proved that the Sun does put a fire out3 – but such a power has been supposed to exist in the actinic rays which the luminary sends forth[.]

4 I do not know “Euere d’or fin”4[.]

Ever Truly Yours | M. Faraday

Chas. L Dodgson Esq | &c &c &c

1
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832–1898, ODNB). Mathematician, author, photographer and Fellow of Christ Church, Oxford.
2
This presumably refers to the photograph of Faraday that Dodgson took in Christ Church, Oxford, on 30 June 1860. This image is reproduced on p.695, volume 5.
3
See Faraday, Diary, 6 May 1848, 5: 9346-63 for his experiments on this subject.
4
Probably a ewer of pure gold. I am indebted to David Knight and his colleagues for this suggestion.

Please cite as “Faraday3935,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday3935