34 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 
analysis for the Board of Ordnance in two days of the contents of a French 
shell fired at Salee. 
In his description of the requisites of a laboratory, Faraday wrote, 
‘ A blank writing-paper book should be upon the table, with pen and ink, 
to enter immediately the notes of experiments. A chair may be admitted, 
and one will be found quite sufficient for all necessary purposes, for a 
laboratory is no place for persons who are not engaged in the operations 
going on there. . . . The practice of delaying to note until the end of a 
train of experiments or to the conclusion of a day, is a bad one, as it then 
becomes difficult accurately to remember the succession of events. There 
is a probability also that some important point which may suggest itself 
during the writing, cannot then be ascertained by reference to experiment, 
because of its occurrence to the mind at too late a period.’ 
Faraday’s own note-books are much more than a record of his experi- 
ments, as he jotted down in them in numbered paragraphs, which ran 
to 16,041, the ideas which flashed on him as he was working in the laboratory 
and his plans for new experiments, so that we can follow his progress from 
day to day and watch the interplay of ideas and experiments, and the 
swiftness and certainty with which he reached a decision. When a young 
man asked him the secret of his success as an investigator, Faraday 
answered, ‘The secret is comprised in three words—Work, Finish, 
Publish.’ What he meant by this we can see by following in his note- 
books the course of his researches in electrochemistry from 1831 to 1834. 
It is easy to see why Faraday had to work alone with nobody to distract 
him. In the period of his great achievements, his experiments were 
rarely continuous, the intervals between them suggesting the subconscious 
working of his mind. He waited until the impulse came and his ‘ prescient 
wisdom’ had planned the experiment and foreseen the result. As we 
read the pages of the note-books, discovery seems to follow discovery 
almost inevitably. Faraday always had a preconceived idea behind his 
experiments, and never were advances made with such economy of effort. 
Each new position was reached by a series of attacks delivered with 
amazing speed when everything was ripe for them. The eager intensity 
with which Faraday worked in the laboratory impressed all those who 
watched him—‘ His motions were wonderfully rapid ; and if he had to 
eross the laboratory for anything, he did not walk at an ordinary step, 
he ran for it, and when he wanted anything he spoke quickly.’ .... 
‘The rare ingenuity of his mind was ably seconded by his manipulative 
skill, while the quickness of his perceptions was equalled by the calm 
rapidity of his movements.’ 
The year 1831 was the turning-point of Faraday’s career. There is no 
greater contrast in scientific literature than his earlier chemical papers, 
characterised by their essentially practical outlook and accomplishment 
and the brilliant flights of imagination which inspired his ‘ Experimental 
Researches in Electricity.’ 
What was it that brought about this transformation? It has been 
said that Faraday’s powers were maturing gradually in readiness for that 
great outburst of intellectual activity in his fortieth year, but I believe 
that the change was due simply to the success of an experiment which 
Faraday had previously tried again and again without result. It was the 
