Michael Faraday, His Life and Work
CHAPTER VIII
RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
The name of Glasites or Sandemanians is given to a small sect of Christians which separated from the Scottish Presbyterian Church about 1730 under the leadership of the Rev. John Glas. Most of the congregations which sprang up in England were formed in consequence of the dissemination of the writings and by the preaching of Robert Sandeman, son-in-law and successor of Glas. Hence the double name. The Sandemanian Church in London was constituted about 1760. It still has a chapel in Barnsbury, though the sect as a whole--never numerous--has dwindled to a small remnant.[58] The religious census of 1851 showed but six congregations in England and six in Scotland. As it never was a proselytising body, it is probable that it has diminished since that date. John Glas was deposed in 1728 by the Presbyterian Courts from his position as minister in the Scottish Church, because he taught that the Church should be governed only by the doctrines of Christ and His apostles, and not be subject to any League or Covenant. He held that the formal establishment by any nation of a professed religion was the subversion of primitive Christianity; that Christ did not come to establish any worldly authority, but to give a hope of eternal life to His people whom He should choose of His own sovereign will; that “the Bible,” and it alone, with nothing added to it nor taken away from it by man, was the sole and sufficient guide for each individual, at all times and in all circumstances; that faith in the divinity and work of Christ is the gift of God, and that the evidence of this faith is obedience to the commandment of Christ.
[Sidenote: THE SANDEMANIAN CREED.]
The tenets of Glas are somewhat obscure and couched in mystical language. They prescribe a spiritual union which binds its members into one body as a Church without its being represented by any corresponding outward ecclesiastical polity. He died in 1773. Sandeman, who spent most of his life in preaching these doctrines, died about the same time in New England. He caused to be inscribed on his tomb that “he boldly contended for the ancient faith that the bare death of Jesus Christ, without a deed or thought on the part of man, is sufficient to present the chief of sinners spotless before God.”
[Sidenote: A PRIMITIVE CHURCH.]
The Sandemanians try--so far as modern conditions permit--to live up to the practice of the Christian Church as it was in the time of the Apostles. At their chapel they “broke bread” every Lord’s day in the forenoon, making this a common meal between the morning and afternoon services, and taking their places by casting lots. And weekly, at their simple celebration of the Lord’s Supper at the close of the afternoon service, before partaking, they collect money for the support of the poor and for expenses. In some places they dined together at one another’s houses instead of at the chapel. “They esteem the lot as a sacred thing. The washing of the feet is also retained: not, it would seem, on any special occasion, but the ablution is performed ‘whenever it can be an act of kindness to a brother to do so.’ Another peculiarity of this religious body is their objection to second marriages.”[59] Members are received into the Church on the confession of sin and profession of faith made publicly at one of the afternoon services. In admitting a new member they give the kiss of charity. They deem it wrong to save up money; “the Lord will provide” being an essential item of faith. Traces of this curious fatalism may be found in one of Faraday’s letters to his wife (p. 52). He seems always to have spent his surplus income on charity. The Sandemanians have neither ordained ministers nor paid preachers. In each congregation, however, there are chosen elders (presbyters or bishops), of whom there must always be a plurality, and of whom two at least must be present at every act of discipline. The elders take it in turns to preside at the worship, and are elected by the unanimous choice of the congregation. The sole qualification for this office, which is unpaid, is that earnestness of purpose and sincerity of life which would have been required in Apostolic times for the office of bishop or presbyter. No difference of opinion is tolerated, but is met by excommunication, which amongst families so connected by marriage produces much unhappiness, since they hold to the Apostle’s injunction, “With such an one, no, not to eat.”
The foregoing summary is needed to enable the reader to comprehend the relationship of Faraday to this body. His father and grandfather had belonged to this sect. In 1763 there was a congregation at Kirkby Stephen (the home of Faraday’s mother) numbering about thirty persons; and there appears to have been a chapel--now used as a barn--in Clapham. A strong religious feeling had been dominant in the Faraday family through the preceding generation. James Faraday, on his removal to London, there joined the Sandemanian congregation, which at that time met in a small chapel in St. Paul’s Alley, Barbican, since pulled down. It had, when founded in 1762, held its first meetings in the hall of the Glovers’ Company, and later in Bull and Mouth Street, till 1778. James Faraday’s wife, mother of Michael Faraday, never formally joined the Sandemanian Church, though a regular attendant of the congregation. Michael Faraday was from a boy brought up in the practice of attending this simple worship, and in the atmosphere of this primitive religious faith. Doubtless such surroundings exercised a moulding influence on his mind and character. The attitude of abstinence from attempts to proselytise, on the part of the church, finds its reflex in Faraday’s habitual reticence, towards all save only the most intimate of friends, on matters of religious faith. “Never once,” says Professor Tyndall, “during an intimacy of fifteen years, did he mention religion to me, save when I drew him on to the subject. He then spoke to me without hesitation or reluctance; not with any apparent desire to ‘improve the occasion,’ but to give me such information as I sought. He believed the human heart to be swayed by a power to which science or logic opened no approach; and right or wrong, this faith, held in perfect tolerance of the faiths of others, strengthened and beautified his life.”
[Sidenote: HIS PROFESSION OF FAITH.]
Of his spiritual history down to the time of his marriage very little is known, for he made no earlier profession of faith. It is not to be supposed that he who was so scrupulous of truth, so single-minded in every relation of life, would accept the religious belief of his fathers without satisfying his conscience as to the rightness of its claims. Yet none of his letters or writings of that period show any trace[60] of that stress of soul through which at one time or another every sincere and earnest seeker after truth must pass before he finds anchorage. Certain it is that he clung with warm attachment to the little self-contained sect amongst whom he had been brought up. Its influence, though contracting his activities by precluding all Christian communion or effort outside their circle, and cutting him off from so much that other Christian bodies hold good, fenced him effectually from dreams of worldliness, and furnished him with that very detachment which was most essential to his scientific pursuits. One month after his marriage he made his confession of sin and profession of faith before the Sandemanian Church. It was an act of humility the more striking in that it was done without any consultation with his wife, to whom he was so closely attached, and who was already a member of the congregation. When she asked him why he had not told her what he was about to do, he replied: “That is between me and my God.”
In 1844 he wrote to Lady Lovelace as follows:--
“You speak of religion, and here you will be sadly disappointed in me. You will perhaps remember that I guessed, and not very far aside, your tendency in this respect. Your confidence in me claims in return mine to you, which indeed I have no hesitation in giving on fitting occasions, but these I think are very few, for in my mind religious conversation is generally in vain. _There is no philosophy in my religion._ I am of a very small and despised sect of Christians, known, if known at all, as Sandemanians, and our hope is founded on the faith that is in Christ. But though the natural works of God can never by any possibility come in contradiction with the higher things that belong to our future existence, and must with everything concerning Him ever glorify Him, still I do not think it at all necessary to tie the study of the natural sciences and religion together, and, in my intercourse with my fellow creatures, that which is religious and that which is philosophical have ever been two distinct things.”
His own views were stated by himself at the commencement of a lecture on _Mental Education_ in 1854:--
High as man is placed above the creatures around him, there is a higher and far more exalted position within his view; and the ways are infinite in which he occupies his thoughts about the fears, or hopes, or expectations of a future life. I believe that the truth of that future cannot be brought to his knowledge by any exertion of his mental powers, however exalted they may be; that it is made known to him by other teaching than his own, and is received through simple belief of the testimony given. Let no one suppose for a moment that the self-education I am about to commend, in respect of the things of this life, extends to any considerations of the hope set before us, as if man by reasoning could find out God. It would be improper here to enter upon this subject further than to claim an absolute distinction between religious and ordinary belief. I shall be reproached with the weakness of refusing to apply those mental operations which I think good in respect of high things to the very highest. I am content to bear the reproach.
One of his friends wrote: “When he entered the meeting-house he left his science behind, and he would listen to the prayer and exhortation of the most illiterate brother of his sect with an attention which showed how he loved the word of truth, from whomsoever it came.”
[Sidenote: AS ELDER AND PREACHER.]
“The most remarkable event,” says Dr. Bence Jones, “of his life in 1840 was his election as an elder of the Sandemanian Church. During that period when in London he preached on alternate Sundays.” This was not an entirely new duty, for he had been occasionally called upon by the elders, from the date of his admission in 1821, to exhort the brethren at the week-day evening meetings, or to read the Scriptures in the congregation. Bence Jones says that, though no one could lecture like Faraday, many might preach with more effect. The eager and vivacious manner of the lecture-room was exchanged for a devout earnestness that was in complete contrast. His addresses have been described as a patchwork of texts cited rapidly from the Old and New Testaments; and they were always extempore, though he prepared careful notes on a piece of card beforehand. Of these, samples are given in Bence Jones’s “Life and Letters.” His first discourse as an elder was on Matt. xi. 28–30, dilating on Christ’s character and example. “Learn of Me.” The ground of humility of Christians must be the infinite distance between them and their Pattern. He quoted 1 John ii. 6; 1 Peter ii. 21; Phil. iii. 17; 1 Cor. xi. 1; and 1 Cor. xiv. 1.
An exceedingly vivid view of Faraday as elder of the Church was given in 1886[61] by the late Mr. C. C. Walker, himself at one time a member of the Sandemanian congregation in London; a congregation, moreover, which included several persons of distinction--Cornelius Varley, the engraver, and George Barnard, the water-colour painter.
At Faraday’s chapel there was a presiding elder, supported by the rest of the elders on two rows of seats elevated across the end of the chapel, one row above the other. The ground floor was filled with the old-fashioned high pews, and there was a gallery above on both sides, also with pews. Faraday sat in a pew on the ground floor, about the middle. There was a large table on the floor of the chapel in front of the elders’ seats. The presiding elder usually preached. Such was the place Faraday worshipped in, situated at the end of a narrow dirty court, surrounded by squalid houses of the poorest of the poor, and so little known that although I knew every street, lane and alley of the whole district, and this alley itself, at the bottom of which the chapel was, I never knew of the existence of the meeting-house till I learned about thirty-five years ago that there was a chapel there to which the world-renowned Faraday not only went, but where he preached. This led me to make a search, and to my great delight, I found it, though with some difficulty. Although the neighbourhood was uncleanly, not so was the interior of the chapel, nor the dining room, with its tables and forms, all of which were spotless.
Faraday’s father was a blacksmith, and worshipped here. He brought up his family religiously, and Faraday from his earliest days attended the chapel. Here he met Miss Barnard, his future wife. Mr. Barnard was a respectable “working silversmith,” as manufacturing silversmiths were then called, to distinguish them from the shopkeepers who then, as now, called themselves “silversmiths,” though frequently making none of the goods they sell. His manufactory was for a time at Amen Court, Paternoster Row; afterwards it was removed to a large building erected by the firm at Angel Street, near the General Post Office, and the business has since been carried on by the sons and grandsons.
[Sidenote: RELIGIOUS SERVICE.]
Mr. Barnard and his family worshipped at the Sandemanian Chapel. To this chapel Faraday walked every Sunday morning from his earliest days; he never kept a carriage, and on religious principles would not hire a cab or omnibus on the Lord’s day.[62]
The service commenced at eleven in the morning and lasted till about one, after which the members--“brothers and sisters,” as they called each other--had their midday meal “in common” in the room attached to the chapel, which has already been referred to. The afternoon worship usually ended about five o’clock, after partaking of the Lord’s Supper. The services were very much like those of the Congregationalists, and consisted of extempore prayers, hymns, reading the Scripture, and a sermon, usually by the presiding elder. Faraday had been an elder for a great many years, and for a considerable time was the presiding elder, and consequently preached; but during this time relinquished his office. There was one peculiarity in the service; the Scriptures were not read by the presiding elder, but he called on one of the members to read; and when Faraday was there--which he always was when in London--the presiding elder named “Brother Michael Faraday,” who then left his pew, passing along the aisle, out of the chapel, up the stairs at the back, and reappeared behind the presiding elder’s seat, who had already opened the large Bible in front of him, and pointed out the chapter to be read. It was one of the richest treats that it has been my good fortune to enjoy to hear Faraday read the Bible. The reader was quite unaware what he was to read until it was selected and when one chapter of the Old Testament was finished another would be given, probably from the New Testament. Usually three chapters were read, and sometimes four, in succession; but if it had been half a dozen there would have been no weariness, for the perfection of the reading, with its clearness of pronunciation, its judicious emphasis, the rich musical voice, and the perfect charm of the reader, with his natural reverence, made it a delight to listen. I have heard most of those who are considered our best readers in church and chapel, but have never heard a reader that I considered equal to Faraday.
At this distance of time his tones are always in my ears.
* * * * *
I was told by members of the chapel that he was most assiduous in visiting the poorer brethren and sisters at their own homes, comforting them in their sorrows and afflictions, and assisting them from his own purse. Indeed, they said, he was continually pressed to be the guest of the high and noble (which we may well believe), but he would, if possible, decline, preferring to visit some poor sister in trouble, assist her, take a cup of tea with her, read the Bible and pray. Though so full of religion, he was never obtrusive with it; it was too sacred a thing.
Tyndall has preserved another vivid reminiscence of Faraday’s inner life, which he wrote down after one of the earliest dinners which he had in the Royal Institution.
“At two o’clock he came down for me. He, his niece, and myself formed the party. ‘I never give dinners,’ he said; ‘I don’t know how to give dinners; and I never dine out. But I should not like my friends to attribute this to a wrong cause. I act thus for the sake of securing time for work, and not through religious motives as some imagine.’ He said grace. I am almost ashamed to call his prayer a ‘saying’ of grace. In the language of Scripture, it might be described as the petition of a son into whose heart God had sent the Spirit of His Son, and who with absolute trust asked a blessing from his Father. We dined on roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, and potatoes, drank sherry, talked of research and its requirements, and of his habit of keeping himself free from the distractions of society. He was bright and joyful--boylike, in fact, though he is now sixty-two. His work excites admiration, but contact with him warms and elevates the heart. Here, surely, is a strong man. I love strength, but let me not forget the example of its union with modesty, tenderness, and sweetness, in the character of Faraday.”
There is a story told by the Abbé Moigno that one day at Faraday’s request he introduced him to Cardinal Wiseman. In the frank interview which followed, the Cardinal did not hesitate to ask Faraday whether, in his deepest conviction, he believed all the Church of Christ, holy, catholic, and apostolic, was shut up in the little sect in which he was officially an elder. “Oh, no!” was Faraday’s reply; “but I do believe from the bottom of my soul that Christ is with us.”
[Sidenote: ELDERSHIP INTERRUPTED.]
The course of Faraday’s eldership was, however, interrupted. It was expected of an elder that he should attend every Sunday. One Sunday he was absent. When it was discovered that his absence was due to his having been “commanded” to dine with the Queen at Windsor, and that so far from expressing penitence, he was prepared to defend his action, his office became vacant. He was even cut off from ordinary membership. Nevertheless, he continued for years to attend the meetings just as before. He would even return from the provincial meetings of the British Association to London for the Sunday, so as not to be absent. In 1860 he was received back as an elder, which office he held again for about three years and a half, and finally resigned it in 1864.
It is doubtful whether Faraday ever attempted to form any connected ideas as to the nature or method of operation of the Divine government of the physical world, in which he had such a whole-souled belief. Newton has left us such an attempt. Kant in his own way has put forward another. So did Herschel; and so in our time have the authors of “The Unseen Universe.” To Faraday all such “natural theology” would have seemed vain and aimless. It was no part of the lecturer on natural philosophy to speculate as to final causes behind the physical laws with which he dealt. Nor, on the other hand, was it the slightest use to the Christian to inquire in what way God ruled the universe: it was enough that He did rule it.
[Sidenote: RELIGION AND SCIENCE.]
Faraday’s mental organisation, which made it possible for him to erect an absolute barrier between his science and his religion, was an unusual one. The human mind is seldom built in such rigid compartments that a man whose whole life is spent in analysing, testing, and weighing truths in one department of knowledge, can cut himself off from applying the same testing and inquiring processes in another department. The founder of the sect had taught them that the Bible alone, with nothing added to it or taken away from it by man, was the only and sufficient guide for the soul. Apparently Faraday never admitted the possibility of human flaw in the printing, editing, translation, collation, or construction of the Bible. He apparently never even desired to know how it compared with the oldest manuscripts, or what was the evidence for the authenticity of the various versions. Having once accepted the views of his sect as to the absolute inspiration of the English Bible as a whole, he permitted no subsequent question to be raised as to its literal authority. Tyndall once described this attitude of mind in his own trenchant way by saying that when Faraday opened the door of his oratory he closed that of his laboratory. The saying may seem hard, but it is essentially true. To few indeed is such a limitation of character possible: possibly it may be unique. We may reverence the frank single-minded simplicity of soul which dwelt in Faraday, and may yet hold that, whatever limitation was right for him, others would do wrong if they refused to bring the powers of the mind--God-given as they believe--to bear upon the discovery of truth in the region of Biblical research. Yet may none of them dream of surpassing in transparent honesty of soul, in genuine Christian humility, in the virtues of kindness, earnestness, and sympathetic devotion, the great and good man who denied himself that freedom.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Faraday’s usual place of work at bookbinding was a little room on the left of the entrance. (_See_ the story of his visit there with Tyndall in after years, as narrated in Tyndall’s “Faraday,” p. 8.)
[2] Still preserved in Faraday’s Diploma-book, now in the possession of the Royal Society.
[3] An account of this machine will be found in the _Argonaut_, vol. ii., p. 33.
[4] “When he [Faraday] was young, poor, and altogether unknown, Masquerier was kind to him; and now that he is a great man he does not forget his old friend.”--Diary of H. Crabb Robinson, vol. iii., p. 375.
[5] He always sat in the gallery over the clock.
[6] See Dr. Paris’s “Life of Davy,” vol. ii., p. 2; or Bence Jones’s “Life and Letters of Faraday,” vol. i., p. 47.
[7] His duties as laid down by the managers were these:--“To attend and assist the lecturers and professors in preparing for, and during lectures. Where any instruments or apparatus may be required, to attend to their careful removal from the model-room and laboratory to the lecture-room, and to clean and replace them after being used, reporting to the managers such accidents as shall require repair, a constant diary being kept by him for that purpose. That in one day in each week he be employed in keeping clean the models in the repository, and that all the instruments in the glass cases be cleaned and dusted at least once within a month.”
[8] The City Philosophical Society was given up at the time when Mechanics’ Institutes were started in London, Tatum selling his apparatus to that established in Fleet Street, the forerunner of the Birkbeck Institution. Many of the City Society’s members joined the Society of Arts.
[9] Two passages may be quoted. “Finally, Sir H. has no valet except myself ... and ’tis the name more than the thing which hurts.” “When I return home, I fancy I shall return to my old profession of bookseller, for books still continue to please me more than anything else.”
[10] The meeting at which it was actually originated was held under the presidency of Sir Joseph Banks, P.R.S., nominally as a meeting for the _Assistance of the Poor!_
[11] A writer in the _Quarterly Journal of Science_ for 1868, p. 50, says: “We have reason to know that Davy was slightly annoyed that the certificate proposing Faraday for election should have originated with Richard Phillips, and that he should not have been consulted before that gentleman was allowed to take the matter in hand.” This is absurd, because the President was by long-standing etiquette debarred from signing the certificates of any but foreign members, as the certificate book of the Royal Society attests.
[12] See p. 12.
[13] Liddon’s “Life of E. B. Pusey” (1893), p. 219.
[14] For this information and many particulars of this transaction I am indebted to Dr. J. H. Gladstone, F.R.S.
[15] “It was probably in a four-wheeled velocipede that Faraday was accustomed, some thirty years ago, to work his way up and down the steep roads near Hampstead and Highgate. This machine appears to have been of his own construction, and was worked by levers and a crank axle in the same manner as the rest of the four-wheeled class.”--_The Velocipede: its past, its present, and its future._ By J. F. B. Firth. London, 1869.
[16] Except on nickel and cobalt, which are also para-magnetic metals.
[17] For a graphic account by Hansteen of the circumstances of Oersted’s discovery, see Bence Jones’s “Life and Letters of Faraday,” vol. ii. p. 390.
[18] “To the effect which takes place in this conductor [or uniting wire] and in the surrounding space, we shall give the name of the _conflict of electricity_.”...
“From the preceding facts we may likewise collect that this conflict performs circles; for without this condition, it seems impossible that the one part of the uniting wire, when placed below the magnetic pole, should drive it towards the east, and when placed above it towards the west; for it is the nature of a circle that the motions in opposite parts should have an opposite direction.”--H. C. OERSTED, _Ann. of Phil._, Oct., 1820, pp. 273–276.
[19] This is an error due to haste in writing.
[20] See a paper by the author in the _Philosophical Magazine_ for June, 1895, entitled “Note on a Neglected Experiment of Ampère.”
[21] Compare Dumas, “Éloge Historique de Michel Faraday,” p. xxxiii., who gives the above statement. Arago’s own account to the _Académie_ differs slightly.
[22] This ring Faraday is represented as holding in his hand in the beautiful marble statue by Foley which stands in the Entrance Hall of the Royal Institution. The ring itself is still preserved at the Royal Institution amongst the Faraday relics. The accompanying cut (Fig. 4) is facsimiled from Faraday’s own sketch in his laboratory note-book.
[23] Now in the possession of the author, to whom it was given by his kinswoman Lady Wilson, youngest daughter of Richard Phillips.
[24] The day of the Annual Meeting and election of Council of the Royal Society.
[25] This is a slip in the description; the momentary current induced in the secondary wire on making the current in the primary is _inverse_: it is succeeded by a momentary _direct_ current when the primary current is stopped.
[26] This doubtless refers to Whewell, of Cambridge, whom he was in the habit of consulting on questions of nomenclature.
[27] A man of fashion who had, without any claim to distinction, wormed himself into scientific society, posed as a savant, and had delivered a high-flown oration on botany at the Royal Institution.
[28] The use of this term, as distinguished from production, to distinguish between the primary generation of a current in a voltaic cell, a thermopile, or a friction-machine, by chemical or molecular action, and its indirect production without contact or communication of any material sort, as by motion of a wire near a magnet or by secondary influence from a neighbouring primary current while that current is varying in strength or proximity, is exceedingly significant. Faraday’s own meaning in adopting it is best grasped by referring to p. 1 of the “Experimental Researches”:--
“On the _Induction_ of Electric Currents.”... The general term _induction_ which, as it has been received into scientific language, may also, with propriety, be used to express the power which electrical currents may possess of inducing any particular state upon matter in their immediate neighbourhood.... I propose to call this action of the current from the voltaic battery _volta-electric induction_ ... but as a distinction in language is still necessary, I propose to call the agency thus exerted by ordinary magnets _magneto-electric or magne-electric_ induction.
[29] “Experimental Researches,” i. 25, art. 85. This copper disc is still preserved at the Royal Institution. It was shown in action by the author of this work, at a lecture at the Royal Institution delivered April 11th, 1891. Fig. 6 is reproduced in facsimile from Faraday’s laboratory note-book.
[30] “Experimental Researches,” i. art. 135.
[31] _Ib._, art. 155.
[32] _Ib._, art. 158.
[33] _Ib._, art. 219.
[34] “Experimental Researches,” i. art. 220.
[35] _Ib._, art. 222.
[36] _Ib._, iii. art. 3192.
[37] “Ann. Chim. Phys.,” li. 76, 1832.
[38] The great magnet of the Royal Society, which was at this time lent to Mr. Christie.
[39] [Original footnote by Faraday.] By magnetic curves, I mean the lines of magnetic force, however modified by the juxtaposition of poles, which would be depicted by iron filings; or those to which a very small magnetic needle would form a tangent.
[40] The entire uselessness as well as the misleading effects of such unscientific nomenclature might well be taken to heart by those electrophysiologists and electrotherapeutists who still indulge in the jargon of “franklinisation,” “faradisation,” and “galvanisation.”
[41] In modern language this would be called the time-integral of the discharge. The statement is strictly true if the galvanometer (as was the case with Faraday’s) is one of relatively long period of oscillation.
[42] From ἄνω _upwards_ and ὁδός _a way_; and κατά _downwards_ and ὁδός _a way_. The words _cathode_ and _cation_ are now more usually spelled _kathode_ and _kation_. Faraday sometimes spelled the word _cathion_ (Exp. Res. Art. 1351), as did also Whewell (Hist. of Ind. Sciences, vol. iii. p. 166).
[43] Literally, _the travellers_, the things which are going.
[44] The term _induction_ appears to have been originally used, in contradistinction to _contact_ or _conduction_, to connote those effects which apparently are in the class of actions at a distance. Thus we may have induction of a charge by a charge, or of a magnet-pole by a magnet-pole. To these Faraday had added the induction of a current by a current, and the induction of a current by a moving magnet. Amid such varying adaptations of the word _induction_, there is much gain in allotting to the electrostatic induction of charges by charges the distinguishing name of _influence_, as suggested by Priestley.
[45] “Faraday as a Discoverer,” p. 67.
[46] Newton’s third letter to Bentley.
[47] Faraday’s definition is:--“By a _diamagnetic_, I mean a body through which lines of magnetic force are passing, and which does not by their action assume the usual magnetic state of iron or loadstone.” It was thus a term strictly analogous to the term _dielectric_ used for bodies through which lines of electric force might pass.
[48] _i.e._ Specimen No. 174. Its composition was equal parts by weight of boracic acid, oxide of lead, and silica.
[49] Subsequent investigation has reduced this figure to about 186,400 miles per second, or about 30,000,000,000 centimetres per second.
[50] The accompanying diagram (Fig. 20) was not given by Faraday. It was pencilled by the author more than twenty years ago in the margin of his copy of Faraday’s “Experimental Researches,” vol. iii., p. 450, opposite this passage.
[51] The discourse was to have been delivered by Wheatstone himself, who, however, at the last moment, overcome by the shyness from which he suffered to an almost morbid degree, quitted the Institution, and left the delivery of the discourse to Faraday.
[52] The italics here are mine. S. P. T.
[53] It is right to add that what, according to the theory explained in the text, must be the correct explanation of the peculiar phenomena of magnetic induction depending on magnecrystallic properties was clearly stated in the form of a conjecture by Faraday in his twenty-second series in the following terms: “Or we might suppose that the crystal is a little more apt for magnetic induction, or a little less apt for diamagnetic induction, in the direction of the magnecrystallic axis than in other directions” (Sir William Thomson, _Philosophical Magazine_, 1851, or “Papers on Electrostatics and Magnetism,” p. 476).
[54] This is exactly Stokes’s theorem of “tubes” of force. S. P. T.
[55] The italics are mine. S. P. T.
[56] Once again did Faraday intervene in Royal Society affairs at the crucial time when Lord Rosse was elected President in 1848. The following excerpts from the journals of Walter White show the cause:--
“November 25th.--There have been many secret conferences this week--much trimming and time-serving. Alas for human nature!”
“November 30th.--The eventful day, the ballot begun. Mr. Faraday made some remarks about the list.”
[57] He was a Chevalier of the Prussian Order of Merit, also Commander in the Legion of Honour, and Knight Commander of the Order of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus.
[58] Faraday’s nephew, Frank Barnard, stated in 1871 that the London congregation included amongst its members not more than twenty men, mostly quite poor, only seven or eight of them being masters of their own businesses, and that Faraday was for some time the wealthiest man of the fraternity.
[59] C. M. Davies: “Unorthodox London,” page 284.
[60] A letter from his nephew, Frank Barnard, to Dr. Gladstone says: “I believe that in his younger days he had his period of hesitation, of questioning in that great argument. I have heard that, so alive was he to the necessity of investigating anything that seemed important, he visited Joanna Southcote, perhaps to learn what that woman’s pretensions were: I think he was a mere lad at that time. But this period once passed, he questioned no more, for the more he saw that Nature was mighty, the more he felt that God was mightier; and to any cavillings upon the doubts of Colenso or the reality of the Mosaic cosmogony, I believe he would simply have replied in the apostle’s words: ‘Is anything too hard for God?’...
“I once heard him say from the pulpit, ‘I hope none of my hearers will in these matters listen to the thing called philosophy.’”
[61] _Manchester Guardian_, November 27.
[62] [This is not altogether accurate. Certainly in his later life Faraday used to hire a cab to take him and Mrs. Faraday to the chapel. S. P. T.]
INDEX
Abbott, Benjamin, 7, 8, 97, 227; letters to, 7, 9, 15, 22, 25, 26, 41, 44, 228
Acoustical researches, 136
Action at a distance unthinkable, 128, 153, 157, 216
Admiralty, Scientific adviser to the, 68
Æther, the, Speculations upon, 193, 213
Airy, Sir George, Dispute with, 269
Aloofness from scientific organisations, 264
Ampère, Andrée Marie: Meeting with, 19; his researches, 80, 82, 85, 105, 126
Analyst, Faraday’s professional work as, 51, 61, 63, 274
Anderson, Sergeant: engaged as assistant, 96; his implicit obedience, 97, 242
Andrews, Professor T., Letter to, 273
Apparatus, Simplicity of, 239
Arago, F.: Meeting with, 34, 238; his notations, 106, 116, 118; his philosophical reserve, 107
Armstrong, Lord, on electrification of steam, 170
Artists amongst acquaintances, 246
Astley’s Theatre, 51
Athenæum Club, 59
Atmospheric magnetism, 206, 209, 210
Atoms or centres of force, 241
Autobiographical notes, 8, 17, 50, 58, 70, 71, 73, 76, 223, 243
B.
Babbage, Charles, 107, 116, 262
Barnard, Edward, 46
----, Frank, 250, 286
----, George, 46, 51, 74, 89, 224, 246, 294
----, Miss Jane, 46, 259
----, ---- Sarah (Mrs. Faraday), 46, 294
Becker, Dr., Letter to, 244
Bence Jones’s “Life and Letters of Faraday,” 7, 26, 40, 43, 48, 57, 58, 78, 108, 199, 226, 231, 293
Benzol, Discovery of, 94, 101
Bidwell, S., magnetic action of light, 184
Biographies of Faraday (_see_ PREFACE)
Boltzmann: on crystalline dielectrics, 166; on the doctrines of Faraday and Maxwell, 216
Bookbinding, 5, 6, 17, 249
Bookselling, 5, 17, 26, 31
Books by Faraday: “On the Means of Obtaining Knowledge,” 41; “Chemical Manipulations,” 101, 233; “On Alleged Decline of Science in England” (editor), 110; “Experimental Researches in Electricity and Magnetism,” 102; “Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics,” 76; “On the Prevention of Dry Rot in Timber,” 149; “Chemistry of a Candle,” 234; “The Forces of Nature,” 234
Boots, a home-made pair of, 249
Brande, W. F., Prof., 39, 57
Breakdown in health, 170, 199, 222, 259
British Association, 64, 224, 264, 268, 297
Browning, Mrs. E. B., denounces Faraday, 251
Burdett-Coutts, Baroness, Letter to, 240
C.
Cards, Use of, to assist memory, 7, 239
Charge, electric, Query as to seat of, 154
----, The nature of an electric, 152
Charitable gifts, 245, 296
Chemical researches, 45, 82, 87; analysis of caustic lime, 76; new chlorine compounds, 87; liquefaction of chlorine, 93; discovery of benzol, 94; sulpho-naphthalic acid, 100
Chemistry, How to examine in, 277
Children and Faraday, 233, 235
Chlorine, Liquefaction of, 55, 91
Christmas lectures, 33, 37, 61, 101, 233, 234, 235, 258
City Philosophical Society, 14, 16, 40, 41, 230
Clerk Maxwell, J.: article on Faraday, 135; theory of conduction, 155; electromagnetic theory of light, 199; on Faraday’s conception of electric action, 217; letter to, on mathematics, 281
Closing days of Faraday’s life, 259
Coinage of new words, 116, 143, 144, 163, 188, 205
Commonplace books, 40, 89
Conduction, Theory of, 155
Conservation of energy, 167, 219
Contact theory of cells, 168
Continent, Visits to, 16, 17, 74, 224
Controversy, Detestation of, 268
Convolutions of the forces of nature, 167, 172, 269, 270
Copper disc experiment, 113
Criticism, Uses of, 14, 231, 240, 269
Crosse, Mrs. A., Reminiscences of, 233, 245, 270
Crystallisation in relation to electric properties, 166, 167
Crystals in the magnetic field, 200, 202
Current, Conception of a, 146, 163
Cutting the magnetic lines, 134, 213
Crookes, Sir W., Advice to, 267
D.
Dalton, John, 65, 226
Dance, Mr., gives Faraday tickets, 8; message to, 30
Daniell, Prof. J. F., 64
Davy, Sir Humphry: lectures of, 8, 36, 227; note to Faraday, 11; engages Faraday, 12; travels abroad, 17; his aristocratic leanings, 25; researches on electric arc, 37; invention of safety lamp, 37, 42, 269; writes to Faraday, 44, 45; misunderstanding with, 56; his jealousy of Faraday, 56, 59; his electromagnetic discovery, 80; and the liquefaction of chlorine, 93
Davy-Faraday laboratory, The, 36
De la Rive, Auguste, 29, 66, 105, 237; letters to, 29, 185
---- ---- ----, Gustave, 20, 28, 116, 141; letters to, 83, 85, 91, 207, 267
De la Rue, Warren: his lecture, 39; his eclipse photographs, 219
Diamagnetic, A, 179
---- polarity, 192, 210
Diamagnetism, Discovery of, 186
Dielectric medium, 153, 159, 163
Diploma-book, 271
Discharge, electric, Forms of, 137, 162
---- ----, Dark, 162
Discoveries, Value of, 63, 224, 248
Displacement currents, 166
Doctrine of conservation of energy, 167, 219
---- of correlation of forces, 172, 269, 270
---- of electrons, 148
Domestic affairs, 49, 69, 244, 257
Doubtful knowledge, Aversion for, 46, 92
Dry rot in timber, 149
Dumas: Reminiscences by, 20, 59, 240; and Arago’s copper, 106; discovery of oxalamide, 137
E.
Eddy-currents, Effects due to, 107, 191, 204
Education, Views on, 278
Eel, The electric, 167
Electric light for lighthouses, 218, 269
Electrical machine, Faraday’s own, 6
---- ----, The “new,” 121
Electrochemical laws, 141, 147
Electrodes, 143
Electrolysis, 143
Electrolytes, 143
Electromagnetic rotations discovered, 51, 83, 87
Electromagnetism, Foundations of, 77
Electrons, Doctrine of, 148
Electrotonic state, 116, 126, 166, 215
Elocution, Lessons in, 43, 230
Enthusiasm, 15, 89, 225, 240
Ether, The (_see_ ÆTHER)
Evolution of electricity from magnetism, 108, 114
Examinations in chemistry, 277
Experiment, Love of, 117, 230, 276
---- the touchstone of hypothesis, 221
---- _versus_ mathematics, 117, 239, 280
Experimental researches in electricity and magnetism: the first series, 113; the last series, 216; Clerk Maxwell on, 218
Expert work, 51, 61, 63, 274
Explosions in the laboratory, 94
F.
Faraday, James, 1, 2, 224
Faraday, Michael: born, 1; schooling of, 2; goes as errand boy, 3; apprenticed as bookbinder and stationer, 5; journeyman bookbinder, 9; attends Tatum’s lectures, 6; attends Sir H. Davy’s lectures, 8; acts as Davy’s amanuensis, 10; engaged at Royal Institution, 12; his foreign tour with Davy, 16; visits Paris, 18; visits Florence, 21; visits Geneva, 22, 28; returns to Royal Institution, 34; lectures at City Philosophical Society, 40, 43; loyalty to Davy, 42, 59, 269; begins original work, 46; falls in love, 46; his poem to Miss Barnard, 46; his wedding, 49; made superintendent of laboratory, 49, 98; discovers electromagnetic rotations, 51; elected F.R.S., 59; made D.C.L. of Oxford, 65; awarded Copley Medal, 69; declines professorship in London University, 66; receives a pension in Civil List, 72; appointed adviser to Trinity House, 67; appointed elder in Sandemanian church, 293; discovers magneto-electric induction, 112, 115; discovers magneto-optic rotation, 176; discovers diamagnetism, 186; readmitted to Sandemanian church, 297; exposes spiritualistic phenomena, 250; declines Presidency of Royal Society, 255; declines presidency of Royal Institution, 255; resigns professorship at Royal Institution, 259; resigns advisership to Trinity House, 259; resigns eldership in Sandemanian church, 259; decease and funeral, 260
----, Robert, 1, 2, 6, 249, 250
----, Sarah (Mrs. Faraday), 49, 50, 51, 223, 225, 255, 257, 291; letters to, 47, 48, 52, 53, 256
Faraday’s father, 1, 2, 224, 289
---- mother, 1, 2, 12, 17, 22, 33, 41, 69, 289
Fatalism, 52, 288
Fees for professional work, 51, 61, 244, 274
Field, The magnetic; first use of this term, 188
Fishes, electrical, Researches on, 20, 139, 167
Fluids, Alleged electric and magnetic, 212, 216, 218
Foreign travel, 16, 17, 74, 224
Fox, Caroline, Reminiscences of, 235
_Fraser’s Magazine_ and Faraday’s pension, 72
Fresnel’s announcement, 105
Friday evenings at the Royal Institution, 33, 60, 100, 101, 149, 166, 170, 192, 203, 219, 220, 225, 232, 236, 259
Fuller, John, founds the Fullerian professorships, 36
Funeral, 260
G.
Gases, Liquefaction of, 55, 91, 171
----, Magnetic properties of, 204, 208
Gassiot, J. P., Reminiscences by, 13
German language, Views on the, 280
Gladstone, Dr. J. Hall, 69, 290
Glass, Researches on, 95
Glassites (_see_ SANDEMANIANS)
Gold, Optical properties of, 219
Gravity in relation to electricity, 204, 220, 285
----, Speculations as to, 195, 203
Grove, Sir Wm., 263, 269
Gymnotus, 167
H.
Hachette, Letter to, 266
Hampton Court, House at, 257, 258
Hare, R., Letter to, 269
Harris, Sir W. Snow, 64, 269
Heat, Effect of, on magnetism, 208
Heavy-glass, 100, 176
Helmholtz, Prof. H. von, 282, 283
Henry, Professor Joseph, Reminiscence by, 241
Herschel, Sir John, 57, 95, 107, 116, 131, 262, 297
Home life, 49, 69, 223, 244, 257
Honours awarded to Faraday, 69, 199, 244, 255, 271
----, scientific, Views on, 271
Hypotheses, Free use of, 221, 241
I.
Ice a non-conductor, 140
----, Regelation of, 219
Identity of electricity from different sources, 137
Imagination, Use of the, 160, 227, 276
Incandescent electric lamps, 199
Income, 68, 245
Indignation against wrong, 227
Induced currents, 114
Induction (electromagnetic), Discovery of, 114
---- (electrostatic), or influence, 153
----, Meaning of the term, 119
Inductive capacity, 159
Influence (_see_ INDUCTION)
Inner conflicts, 226, 290
Iodine, Davy’s experiments on, 19, 24, 27
Ions, Origin of term, 144, 145
J.
Jenkin, Wm., observes spark at break, 150, 243
Jones (_see_ BENCE JONES)
Journals of foreign travel, 18, 224
Juvenile lectures at Royal Institution, 33, 37, 61, 101, 233, 234, 235, 258
K.
Keble, Rev. J., and the hodge-podge of philosophers, 65
Kelvin, Lord: theory of electromotive forces, 148; on theory of magnetic permeability in æolotropic media, 201; on Faraday’s views of electricity, 284; letter from, 285
Kerr, Dr. John: electro-optic discovery, 173; magneto-optic discovery, 182
Kindliness, 226
Knighthood no honour, 273
Kundt, Aug., magneto-optic discovery, 182
L.
Laboratories at Albemarle Street, 36, 51, 66, 80, 84, 96
Lateral effects of current, 151, 165, 170
Lectures at Royal Institution: Davy’s, 8, 36; Faraday’s first, 227; Juvenile, 33, 37, 61, 101, 233, 234, 235, 258; afternoon, 37, 166
----, Friday night discourses, 33, 60, 100, 101, 149, 166, 170, 192, 203, 219, 220, 225, 232, 236, 259
Lectures at the London Institution, 101
---- at the British Association, 264
---- at St. George’s Hospital, 166
---- at Woolwich, 66, 101
Lecturing, Views about, 16, 226, 232, 238
Letters from Faraday to: Abbott, B., 7, 9, 15, 22, 25, 26, 41, 44, 228; Andrews, T., 273; Barnard, Miss Sarah, 47, 48; Becker, Dr., 244; Burdett-Coutts, Baroness, 240; Davy, Sir H., 10; De la Rive, A., 29, 185; De la Rive, G., 83, 85, 91, 207, 267; Deacon, Mrs., 253; Faraday, Mrs., 52, 53, 256; Grove, Sir Wm., 263; Hare, R., 269; Lovelace, Lady, 291; Matteucci, Prof. C., 253, 262, 267; Melbourne, Lord, 71; Moore, Miss, 207; Murray, Mr. John, 234; Paris, Dr. J. A., 10, 93; Percy, Dr. J., 253; Phillips, R., 61, 109, 114, 194, 270, 277; Riebau, G., 30; Royet, Dr. P., 99; Schönbein, Professor, 206, 252; the Deputy-Master of Trinity House, 67; Tyndall, Prof. J., 210, 264, 268, 277, 278, 280; Whewell, Rev. W., 145; Young, Dr. T., 97
---- to Faraday: From Sir H. Davy, 44, 45; from Baron Liebig, 225; from Sir W. Thomson (Lord Kelvin), 285; from Rev. W. Whewell, 116, 144, 145, 163, 205
Liebig, J. von, Reminiscences by, 224, 282
Light, Action of magnetism on, 176
----, Electromagnetic theory of, 197, 199, 213
Lighthouses, Scientific work for, 67, 199, 218, 259
Lines of force, 113, 133, 195, 208, 211, 213, 285; vibrations of, 195
Liquefaction of gases, 55, 91, 171
London University (_see_ UNIVERSITY)
Love of children, 233, 235
----, Poetical diatribe against, and recantation, 40, 47
Lovelace, Lady, Letter to, 291
Love-letters of Faraday, 47, 48, 52, 58, 256
M.
Magnecrystallic forces, 201
Magnetic lines, 113, 133, 195, 213, 214
Magnetisation by light, 183
---- of light, 176
Magnetism and cold, 167
---- of gases, 204
---- of rotation, Alleged, 106, 121
Magneto-electric discovery, 95, 112
---- induction, 115
---- light, 120, 130, 218, 259
---- machines, 122, 125, 126, 218, 259
Magneto-optical researches, 176, 182, 220
Magrath, E., 7, 14, 60, 231
Marcet, Mrs., Conversations on Chemistry, 6
Masquerier teaches Faraday to draw, 8
Mathematics _versus_ experiment, 117, 239, 280
----, Faraday’s views on, 280, 281
---- and Faraday’s methods, 217, 282
Matteucci, C., Letters to, 253, 262, 267
Maxwell (_see_ CLERK MAXWELL)
Mayo, Herbert, Impromptu by, 117
Meat-canning processes, 243
Medium, Action in a, 157, 213, 216
----, The part played by the, 128, 153, 158, 194, 213
Melbourne, Lord, and Faraday’s pension, 69
Memory, Troubles of a defective, 7, 63, 74, 253
Mental education, Views on, 278, 292
Models, Use of, 104, 239
Moigno, Abbé, Reminiscence by, 297
Moll, G.: his electromagnets, 120; pamphlet on “Decline of Science,” 110, 262
Moore, Miss, Letter to, 207
Morichini’s experiments on magnetisation by light, 21, 183
Murchison, Sir R., Reminiscence by, 227
Music, Enjoyment of, 246
N.
Natural theology, Views on, 298
New electrical machine, 121
Newman, Rev. J. H., and the British Association, 65
Newton, Mr. Jos., Reminiscence by, 254
Nobili and Antinori, their mistake, 266
Non-inductive winding, 150
Notebooks a better test than examinations, 277
----, Faraday’s own, 8, 50, 73, 87, 90, 91, 108, 111, 118, 129, 141, 143, 150, 153, 156, 167, 177, 180, 181, 182, 220
O.
Oersted’s discovery of electromagnetism, 77, 78
Optical glass, Research on, 95, 100
---- illusions, Research on, 136
---- relations of electricity, 91, 149, 155, 167, 172, 174, 175
---- ---- of magnetism, 176, 182, 220
Order and method, 68, 99, 200
Owen, Lady, Reminiscences by, 236
Oxford and the philosophers, 64
Oxygen, Magnetic properties of, 208
P.
Paris, Dr. J. A., Letters to, 10, 93
Passive state of iron, 167
Peel, Sir Robert, 69, 70, 246
Pension: declined, 71; accepted, 72
Percy, Dr. John, Letter to, 253
Permeability, Magnetic, in crystals, 201
---- ----, Research on, 206
Personal appearance, 4, 18, 74, 255
Phillips, Richard, 7, 44, 52, 54, 57, 59, 61, 84, 87, 193; letters to, 61, 109, 114, 194, 270, 277
Phosphorescence, Lectures on, 136, 219
Plücker, Julius: on magneto-optic action, 203; shows electric discharge, 240
Poetry by Faraday, 40, 47
Poisson: on Arago’s rotations, 107; on magnetic theory, 201
Polar forces in crystals, 94, 200, 202
Polemics in science hateful, 268
Poles are only doors, 141, 241
Politics, Indifference to, 19, 21, 33, 268
Pollock, Lady, Reminiscences by, 235, 254, 257
Practical applications of science, 63, 216, 224, 248, 259
Preaching, Style of, 293
Preservation of Raphael’s cartoons, 246
Prince Consort, H.R.H. the, 237, 257, 278
Principle of all dynamo machines, 216
Priority in discovery, 265
Professional work for fees, 51, 61, 274
---- ---- relinquished, 61, 274, 275
Professorship of Chemistry at University College, The, 66, 277; declined, 66
Professorships at the Royal Institution, 36
Proportional judgment advocated, 242
Public Schools Commission, Evidence given before, 278
_Punch_, Caricature in, 252
Pusey and science, 65
Q.
_Quarterly Journal of Science_, 39, 46, 75, 76, 82, 88, 92, 94, 104
Queen Victoria, 257, 297
R.
Radiant matter, 40
Rain torpedo, The, 20
Ray-vibrations, Thoughts on, 193
Regelation of ice, 219
Reid, Miss, Reminiscences by, 223, 231
Religious belief, 51, 289, 291
Religious character, 71, 244, 245
Remuneration of science, 44, 68, 244, 274
Repulsions, magnetic, New, 190
Research, Royal Institution as place for, 37
---- unhampered by other duties, 37
Researches, Original: the four degrees of, 241; Faraday’s first, 76; Faraday’s last, 220; division into periods, 75; summary of, 216
Residences: Weymouth Street, 2; Royal Institution, 13, 68; Hampton Court Cottage, 258
Retardation of discharge, 161
Riebau, George: Faraday’s employer, 3, 7, 22; Faraday apprenticed to, 51; letters and messages to, 29, 34
Ring, The famous experiment with the, 108
Robinson, H. Crabb, Reminiscences by, 8, 236
Röntgen on displacement currents, 166
Rotation of plane of polarisation of light, 177
Rotations, electromagnetic, Discovery of, 51, 83, 87
Royal Institution: foundation of, 35; Davy’s lectures at, 8, 36, 39; precarious state of, 22, 29, 35, 36, 68; laboratories of, 36; lectures at the, 37, 166; Christmas lectures, 33, 37, 61, 101, 233, 234, 235, 258; Friday night meetings, 33, 60, 100, 101, 149, 166, 170, 192, 203, 219, 220, 225, 232, 236, 259; Presidency offered and declined, 255
Royal Society: first papers read to the, 52, 263; candidature for Fellowship in the, 56, 57, 59; Faraday’s election as Fellow of the, 59; committee on optical glass, 95, 99; Member of Council, 136, 261; Presidency offered to him, 255, 263; dissatisfaction with, 262
Ruhmkorff’s induction-coil, 219, 225
Rumford, Benjamin Count of: founds the Royal Institution, 35; Faraday dines with, 34
S.
Sacrifice for Science, 63, 64, 234, 244
Safety-lamp: Faraday aids Davy to invent the, 42; controversy about, 269
Salaries paid to scientific men, 44, 68, 244, 274
Sandemanians, 4, 51, 286
Schönbein, Prof., Letters to, 206, 252
Science in education, 279
---- teaching, Views on, 278
Scientific societies, 261
Scoffern, Dr., Anecdote by, 280
Self-induction investigated, 150, 151
Sermons, Faraday’s, 293
Shaftesbury, Earl of, 69
Sirium, _alias_ Vestium, 46, 77
Sisters, His letters to his, 32
Smart, B. H., teaches elocution, 43, 230
Snow-Harris (_see_ HARRIS)
Social character, 245
Society of Arts, 14
Source of electromotive force in cell, 168
South, Sir James, 6, 57, 69, 70, 97, 262
Spark from a magnet, 64, 119, 130
Specific inductive capacity, 159
Spiritualists, Opinion of, 251
Steel, Research on, 82
Stinginess of British Government towards science, 274
Sturgeon, W.: his invention of the electromagnet, 102, 226; on Arago’s rotations, 107
Submarine cables, 161
Sunday observance, 24, 51, 55, 224, 295, 297
T.
Table-turning explained, 251
Tatum’s lectures, 6, 14
Testimonials of candidates, Repugnance to, 277
Thames impurities, 252
Thomson, Sir W. (_see_ KELVIN)
Thoughts on ray-vibrations, 193
Thunderstorms enjoyed, 240
Time of propagation of magnetism, 220, 284
Toronto, what its university might have been, 277, 278
Torpedo, The, 20
Trinity House, Scientific adviser to, 67, 199, 218, 259
Tubes of force, 211
Turner, J. W. M., R.A., Advice to, about pigments, 246
Tyndall, Prof.: reminiscences by, 4, 49, 74, 175, 187, 225, 255, 290, 296, 299; his “Faraday as a Discoverer,” 4, 130, 157, 169, 202; letters to, 210, 264, 268, 277, 278, 280
U.
Utility of discoveries, 63, 224, 248
University College, Professorship in, 66, 277
University of London: Senator of, 275; degrees in science, 275
V.
Varley, Cornelius, 5, 294
Velocipede riding, 74
Vesuvius, Ascents of, 22, 33
Vibrations, Thoughts on ray-, 193
Visits to the sick, 245, 296
Volta, Count Alessandro, Meeting with, 22
Volta-electric induction, 115
Voltameter, 146
W.
Water, On freezing of, 203
Wellington, The Duke of, on practical application of discovery, 248
Wheatstone, Sir Charles: on velocity of discharge, 149, 161; his electric chronoscope, 192
Whewell, Rev. W., Correspondence with, about terms, 116, 144, 145, 163, 205
White, Walter, Reminiscences by, 253, 263
William IV., King, 72, 73
Wiseman, Cardinal, Meeting with, 297
Wollaston, Dr. W. H., Misunderstanding with, 51, 56, 57, 58, 84, 89
Woolwich Academy lectures, 66, 101
Working, Method of, 66, 242, 247
Y.
Young, Dr. T., Letter from, 97
Z.
Zeeman’s magneto-optic discovery, 220
PRINTED BY CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED, LA BELLE SAUVAGE, LONDON, E.C.
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation, some hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they were not changed. The original book inconsistently followed “electro” with a hyphen, and that has not been changed here.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left unbalanced.
Illustrations in this eBook have been positioned between paragraphs and outside quotations. In versions of this eBook that support hyperlinks, the page references in the List of Illustrations lead to the corresponding illustrations.
Running page headers in the original book are shown here as sidenotes, placed between paragraphs and near the topics to which they refer.
Footnotes, originally at the bottoms of pages, have been renumbered into a single sequence, collected, and moved to just above the Index.
The index was reformatted slightly and was not checked systematically for proper alphabetization or correct page references.