292 JOSEPH IIENRY, LL.D. 



1 Hurrah for the Yankee experiment ! ' " " It is 

 not generally known or appreciated," says Profes- 

 sor Mayer, "that Henry and Faraday independ- 

 ently discovered the means of producing the elec- 

 tric current and the electric spark from a magnet. 

 . . . Henry cannot be placed on record as the first 

 discoverer of the magneto-electric current, but it 

 can be claimed that he stands alone as its second 

 independent discoverer." Both James D. Forbes 

 of Edinburgh and Henry obtained the spark, but 

 were anticipated by Faraday. 



Henry spoke before the various scientific socie- 

 ties. He was no longer the apprentice to a watch- 

 maker, or the leader of private theatricals, but a 

 distinguished scholar. By his own will and energy 

 he had attained to this enviable position. 



Meantime a man of science, in England, had 

 thought out a great project for the benefit of his 

 fellow-men. James Smithson, a wealthy English 

 chemist, a Fellow of the Koy~l Society, unmarried, 

 died in 1829. He left his property, over five hun- 

 dred and forty thousand dollars, after the death of 

 his nephew, provided that he died childless, "to 

 the United States of America, to found at Wash- 

 ington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, an establishment for the increase and diffusion 

 of knowledge among men." The nephew died six 

 years later, unmarried. 



This was indeed a wonderful gift, and from a 

 stranger! Difficulties at once presented them, 

 selves. How could the property be used " for the 



