2 
MR. FARADAY ON THE 
year 1823. Fraunhofer laboured hard at the solution of the same practical 
problem. He was a man of profound science, and had all the advantages ari- 
sing from extensive means and information, both in himself and others. He 
laboured in the glass-house, the work-shop, and the study, pursuing without 
deviation the great object he had in view, until science was deprived of him 
also by death. Both these men, according to the best evidence we can obtain, 
have produced and left some perfect glass in large pieces : but whether it is 
that the knowledge they acquired was altogether practical and personal, a mat- 
ter of minute experience, and not of a nature to be communicated ; or whether 
other circumstances were connected with it, — it is certain that the public are not 
in possession of any instruction, relative to the method of making a homogeneous 
glass fit for optical purposes, beyond what was possessed before their time ; and 
in this country it seems doubtful whether they ever attained a method of 
making such glass with certainty and at pleasure, or have left any satisfactory 
instructions on the subject behind them. 
The philosophical deficiencies referred to above, induced the President and 
Council of the Royal Society in 1824, to appoint a Committee for the improve- 
ment of glass for optical purposes, consisting of Fellows of the Royal Societyand 
Members of the then Board of Longitude. The Government on being applied 
to, not only removed the restrictions to experiments on glass, occasioned by the 
Excise laws and regulations, but undertook to bear all the expenses of furnaces, 
materials, and labour, as long as the investigations offered a reasonable hope of 
success. In consequence of these facilities, a small glass-furnace was erected in 
1825, and many experiments both upon a large and small scale were made with 
flint and other glasses. During their continuance, Messrs. Green and Pellatt 
gave every instruction and assistance in their power, and evinced the most 
earnest desire for success. The researches, however, soon showed themselves to 
be a work of labour, which, to be successful, would require to be pursued 
unremittingly for a long period; and on May 5, 1825, a sub-committee was 
appointed, to whom the direct superintendence and performance of experiments 
were entrusted. This committee consisted of Mr. Herschel, Mr. Dollond, 
and myself ; but in March 1829 was reduced to two, by the retirement of Mr. 
Herschel, who about that period went to the continent. From the respective 
pursuits of the three persons appointed upon this committee it may be easily 
