141 
who was present at its exhibition in Cambridge, spoke with en- 
thusiasm not only of the magnitude of the discovery of the in- 
ductive electrical effects of magnetism—one of the claims of Fara- 
day to imperishable reputation—but also of the ingenious invention 
of Mr. Saxton by which the transient electrical currents might ex- 
hibit their effects in so brilliant and so powerful a manner.’’ * 
‘ Notwithstanding the attention which this machine of Saxton’s 
received in scientific circles, no description of it was published 
until 1836. In October of that year a philosophical instrument 
maker of London, named Clarke, published a description of a 
magneto electrical machine practically identical with that of Sax- 
ton, and differing only in the fact that the magnet was placed ver- 
tically, with the poles downward, instead of horizontally. Not 
only does he not mention Mr. Saxton by name, nor even allude to 
his machine, publicly exhibited three years before, but he says with 
great affectation of originality: ‘‘ From the time Dr. Faraday first 
discovered magnetic electricity to the present my attention has 
been entirely devoted to that important branch of science, more 
especially to the construction of an efficacious magnetic electrical 
machine, which after much anxious thought, labor and expense, I 
now submit to your notice.’’+ Naturally Saxton was prompt to 
take notice of this disingenuous statement. In the next number of 
the same journal he says, referring to Clarke’s paper: ‘‘ A reader 
unacquainted with the progress which magneto-electricity has made 
since this new path of science was opened by the beautiful and un- 
expected discoveries of Faraday, might be misled, from the paper 
I have alluded to, to believe that the electromagnetic machine there 
represented was the invention of the writer, and that the experi- 
ments there mentioned were for the first time made by its means. 
No conclusion, however, would be more erroneous. The machine 
which Mr. Clarke calls Acs invention differs from mine only in 
a slignt variation in the situation of its parts, and is in no respect 
superior to it. The experiments which he states in such a manner 
as to insinuate that they are capable of being made only by his ma- 
chine, have every one been long since performed with my instru- 
ment, and Mr. Clarke has had every opportunity of knowing the 
truth of this statement. 
* Memoir of Joseph Saxton,’ by Joseph Henry, Biographical Memoirs Nat. Acad. of 
Sciences, Vol. i, pp. 287-317, Washington, 1877. 
{ Philosophical Magazine, II{, ix, 262, October, 1836. 
