xlii 



well as the will to be active. All this, however, may be left to clear itself 

 up as the time proceeds." 



Mt. 50 (1842). 



He resumed the Friday evening lectures, and gave one on the Conduc- 

 tion of Electricity in Lightning-rods, and one on the Principles and Practice 

 of Hullmandel's Lithotint. This year he made four reports to the Trinity 

 House : — 1, on comparison of the amount of Light cut off by French glass 

 and by Newcastle glass ; 2, on a new Mode of suspending the Mirrors ; 

 3, its application to the Lundy Lighthouse, so as to save light ; 4, a Report 

 on the Ventilation of the Tynemouth Light ; and he went to see the opera- 

 tion of the grinding-apparatus for lenses at Newcastle. 



To Dr. T. M. Browne, who had asserted the isomerism of carbon and 

 silicon, and who asked Faraday to witness his experiments and give him a 

 written testimonial if they were satisfactory, he writes : — " That which 

 made me inaccessible to you makes me so in a very great degree to all my 

 friends — ill health connected with my head ; and I have been obliged, and I 

 am still, to lay by nearly all my own pursuits, and to deny myself the 

 pleasure of society, either in seeing myself in my friends' houses or them 

 here. This alone would prevent me from acceding to your request. I 

 should, if I assented, do it against the strict advice of my friends, medical 

 and social. 



" The matter of your request makes me add a word or two, which I hope 

 you will excuse. Any one who does what you ask of me, i. e. certify if 

 the experiment is successful, is bound, without escape, to certify and publish 

 also if it fail ; and I think you may consider that very few persons would 

 be willing to do this. I certainly would not put myself in such a most un- 

 pleasant condition." 



This year he was made Chevalier of the Prussian Order of Merit (one 

 of thirty), and Foreign Associate of the Royal Academy of Sciences, 

 Berlin. 



Mt. 51 (1843). 



Early this year he sent the eighteenth series of his c Researches ' to the 

 Royal Society.. It was on the electricity evolved by the friction of water 

 and steam against other bodies. This had been first observed by Sir W. 

 Armstrong, and was attributed to evaporation, and was thought to be related 

 to atmospheric electricity. He concluded, " the cause being, I believe, fric- 

 tion, has no effect in producing, and is not connected with, the general 

 electricity of the atmosphere." 



He read a paper at the Institution of Civil Engineers on the ventilation 

 of lighthouse lamps, the points necessary to be observed, and the manner 

 in which these have been, or may be, attained. 



He gave three Friday discourses on some Phenomena of Electric In- 

 duction ; on the Ventilation of Lamp-burners, and on the Electricity of 

 Steam. 



For the Trinity House he went to the South Foreland lighthouses re- 



