[Royal Institution embossed letterhead] | Railway Station | Tuesday Evening
My dear Mr. Crookes
We have reason to expect a visit quite private from the Prince of Wales to see the spectrum experiments1.
I thought that if you would spare us the least piece of Thallium 2 the demonstration of its special ray might lead to the telling him of the mode of discovery & the discoverer. What do you think? If you consider it worth while & could send me by letter a minute piece by 10 o’clk on Thursday morning3 that would be in time. I would use a part of that you gave me but do not like to destroy the sphere[.]
Ever Truly Yours | M. Faraday
W. Crookes, Esqr | &c &c &c
Address: W. Crookes Esq | &c &c &c | 1 Wine Office Court | Fleet Street E.C.
Postmark: 20 May 1863
JAMES, Frank A.J.L. (1984): “Of ‘Medals and Muddles’. The Context of the Discovery of Thallium: William Crookes’s Early Spectro-Chemical Work”, Notes Rec. Roy. Soc. Lond., 39: 65-90.
Please cite as “Faraday4329,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 30 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday4329