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New addition to Faraday archive

An Institution of Engineering and Technology product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Oct 14, 2004

The IEE has recently acquired a previously unknown letter written by Michael Faraday to his friend Benjamin Abbott, dated 16th May 1836.

The IEE has recently acquired a previously unknown letter written by Michael Faraday (1791-1867), acknowledged as an architect of modern-day electricity, to his friend Benjamin Abbott, dated 16th May 1836.

"I am very pleased that this letter will now be available to the public", says Anne Locker, IEE Archivist.

" It is an exciting addition to our Faraday collections and I hope that it will stimulate further research into Faraday's life and work".

The IEE already holds the main collection of Faraday-Abbott correspondence (1812-1817) as well as significant collection of Faraday's correspondence and notebooks.

This letter sheds further light on his loyalty to his friends and his working life at the Royal Institution.

After 1817, there are only six known letters from Faraday to Abbott.

They became less frequent as Faraday became more concerned with the Royal Institution and his research into electricity; however, the two remained friends.

This recently acquired letter is remarkably forthright and most importantly historically, Faraday reminisces about aspects of his early life, which we know comparatively little about.

The letter also demonstrates his close friendship with Abbott even after the latter left London.

As the letter was in private hands before its transfer to the IEE, it was not included in the edition of Faraday's correspondence edited by Dr Frank James, who will be able to include the letter in a later volume of this work.

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