Michael Faraday Correspondence - Volume three

1841-1848, letters 1334-2145

Volume 3

This volume, in which nearly 75% of the letters were previously unpublished, covers most of the 1840s. During the early part of this period Faraday's scientific productivity declined markedly, but in 1845 he discovered the magneto-optical effect and diamagnetism, which allowed him to argue for his views on the nature of matter. In his work for the state, Faraday conducted, with Charles Lyell, the inquiry into the Haswell Colliery disaster in 1844. Faraday's correspondence with Trinity House illustrate the crucial role which Faraday played in the development of the lighthouse service in the middle third of the nineteenth century.

Major correspondents in this volume include the Astronomer Royal George Biddell Airy, the Irish chemist Thomas Andrews, the mathematician Charles Babbage, the Governor General of Canada Charles Bagot, the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the philanthropist Angela Burdett Coutts, the French Chemist Jean-Baptiste-Andre Dumas, the Secretary of Trinity House Jacob Herbert, Byron's daughter Ada Lovelace, the President of the Royal Institution the Duke of Northumberland, the Prime Minister Robert Peel, the German physicist Julius Plücker, the Swiss chemist Christian Schoenbein, the natural philosopher William Thomson and the Cambridge philosopher William Whewell.