Michael Faraday Lecture Invitation
Autograph Note Signed, 16 May 1835
Publication: 1835.
Notes: A short note, "Royal Institution | 16 May 1835 | Admit Dawson Turner Esq | and [blank] | to the Lecture of this day. | M Faraday."
An account of this lecture is found in the journal of Daniel Treadwell: "Went again to the Royal Institution to hear Mr. Faraday's lecture in his regular course of chemistry to the members of the Institution. The room was well filled, many ladies being present, sitting with the gentlemen, which was not the case yesterday. The subject of the lecture was Lead." Faraday performed a variety of experiments for the audience, including igniting lead with electricity. After the lecture, "there were so many ladies crowding round him...that after waiting half an hour, and seeing no chance of their leaving, I came away without passing a word to him."—Quoted from the Memoir of Daniel Treadwell by Morrill Wyman in Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. IX, p. 387.
Faraday was one of the most influential scientists of the 19th century, making significant contributions to the understanding of electricity and electromagnetism as well as discovering a number of chemical compounds. Faraday used lead in his invention of borosilicate of lead glass, which was used to prove the Faraday Effect—that light and magnetism were connected—in 1845.
The recipient of this lecture pass, Dawson Turner, was a banker and an amateur botanist who published several books on algae and lichen, as well as travelogues and historical works.
Edition + Condition: The note is written on a single sheet of H. Smith & Son 1834 watermarked paper (8-1/2 by 7-1/4 inches), folded in half (to make four pages) and then folded two, perhaps for insertion into an envelope. The blank second leaf is glued around the edges to a paper frame. The opening allows the watermark to be seen clearly (the paper is affixed along a millimeter wide edge of the paper frame).
Item No: #366291
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