[Royal Institution embossed letterhead] | 17 May 1860 [sic].
My dear Sir
I have kept your letter2 two or three days on my mind waiting on thought with a hope that some idea might occur but I have nothing useful to say. I think with you that no static electrical relation that can occur in nature from evaporation will serve any purpose with you[.] My thoughts go at once to the oxygen of the atmosphere which being paramagnetic loses in paramagnetic condition by heat & regains it by cold (See Exp Res 2770. 2780. 27933. 2861 29664 - but whether as the earth revolves the air over the North Atlantic & Africa change - and change in different proportions - & change in the direction you require - & at the right times I cannot say - one would think that that over the Sea would depart in the smallest proportion from its average condition.
If any thought occurs to me I will let you know[.]
Ever Truly Yours | M. Faraday
G.B. Airy Esqr | &c &c &c
FARADAY, Michael (1851a): “Experimental Researches in Electricity. - Twenty-fifth Series. On the magnetic and diamagnetic condition of bodies”, Phil. Trans., 141: 7-28.
FARADAY, Michael (1851b): “Experimental Researches in Electricity. - Twenty-sixth Series. Magnetic conducting power. Atmospheric magnetism”, Phil. Trans., 141: 29-84.
Please cite as “Faraday4002,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 8 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday4002