PHYSICS OF NINETEENTH CENT.-ELECTRICI7 Y. 575 



By the kindness of one of his master's customers, Faraday was 

 taken to the Royal Institution to hear the four last lectures which Sir 

 Humphry Davy ever delivered, the dates being the 2Qth of February, 

 i4th of March, 8th of April, loth of April, 1812. He made notes of 

 the lectures, wrote them out fully and neatly in a quarto volume, with 

 drawings of the apparatus employed. This volume was soon afterwards 

 sent to Davy with a letter in which Faraday expressed his earnest 

 desire to enter upon some scientific employment, and hoped that Sir 

 Humphry would favour his views if opportunity occurred. Davy at 

 once sent a kind reply, and the result was that in March, 1813, he 



FIG. 290. THE GALVANOMETER. 



engaged Faraday as assistant in the laboratory of the Royal Institution 

 at a salary of twenty-five shillings a week, with two rooms. In the 

 minutes of the committee of management of the Royal Institution 

 under date ist of March, 1813, is this entry : 



"Sir Humphry Davy has the honour to inform the managers that 

 he has found a person who is desirous to occupy the situation in the 

 Institution lately filled by William Payne. His name is Michael 

 Faraday. He is a youth of twenty-two years of age. As far as Sir 

 H. Davy has been able to observe or ascertain, he appears well fitted 

 for the situation. His habits seem good, his disposition active and 

 cheerful, and his manner intelligent. He is willing to engage himself 

 on the same terms as those given to Mr. Payne at the time of quitting 

 the Institution. Resolved, That Michael Faraday be engaged to 

 fill the situation lately occupied by Mr. Payne on the same terms." 



