Faraday to Peter Henry Berthon   22 July 1863

Royal Institution | 22 July 1863

Sir

I have received from the Deputy Master¹ certain papers addressed by Dr. Robinson of Armagh to the Board of Trade and by that Board to the Trinity House. They relate to fog signals at Sea. They contain a memorial² stating truly the great want of a system founded upon good & efficient principles: the great deficiency in the numerous general methods hitherto proposed for the purpose:- and they urge an investigation to be undertaken by the Government for the purpose of elucidating the principles of all the methods proposed & referred to in the memorial (which are very numerous) with the hope of discovering some one method which shall be effectual in replacing the lights at sea when fog or twilight deprives them of their power & render them useless. Upon these papers the Deputy Master desires to have my remarks.

The Object proposed is of the utmost importance to a country like ours and deserves every encouragement & aid which the Trinity House or the Government can give it. But the difficulty is to know how to institute such an investigation as shall yield a satisfactory result. The memorial, which enumerates many propositions & principles of action, proposes a sort of exhaustive process by which each of these shall be taken up in turn:- & the principles involved being examined, & in respect of their action, measured under the variety of natural circumstances, the process shall be either raised up to a successful result or dismissed with sufficient reasons. The memorial proposes not simply an examination & judgement of methods & results brought forward by those who having thought the matter over think they have carried it to a useful end, but the institution of lines of research & discovery in every direction bearing upon the object. Now it is probable that of the many researches suggested not one in ten, perhaps not one in the whole, would lead to a satisfactory result, and yet each would require a vigorous mind, the exertion, it may be for years, of the mental power of that mind, & probably the outlay of much money. It is quite true that the success of one such research, as that of the conduction of sound signals under water (Colladon³), would compensate for the failure of all the rest. But as far as we know at present, all the propositions fail in giving any appearance of that amount of certainty without which they would be sources of danger rather than of safety: for the promise of an indication which should be continually failing uncertainly and that at times of greatest danger would be worse than no promise at all.

Now, earnestly as I desire the advancement of the great object proposed, I do not perceive how the establishment of an inventive & discovery board is to be realized: The real mental advancement of science & discovery seems to me to belong to single minds and not to a body of persons. If the spirit of the proposition made by Dr. Robinson can be carried out I am of opinion that the results will depend upon the single mind that governs the whole or upon the single minds that may be entrusted with any specific part of the whole. I could trust such a great investigation to the hands of Dr. Robinson from whom the intellect should issue to govern the whole and to whom the responsibility should attach for the use of the means which the government might entrust to him & I could trust his judgement for the individuals he might select for particular investigations but I should have little confidence in a board where the responsibility & thought might be shifted from one to another i.e. where the responsibility should be general & not particular.

For myself I am sorry to say that I could not undertake any of the mental labour or responsibility that would or ought to fall to the lot of any member of such a discovery-board[.] My age, my health & sense of what time has done to weaken any investigative power I may had had in former years forbids it. I have often enough thought of the various methods which have been proposed for the purpose of conveying signals across fogs & if any thing useful had occurred to me should have wrought it out in former years for the service of the Trinity House & to my own honour but in this respect my thoughts have been of no avail⁴[.]

I have the honor to be | Sir | Your Very Obedient Humble Servant | M. Faraday

P.H. Berthon Esqr | &c &c &c