Michael Faraday’s ‘Chemical Notes, Hints, Suggestions and Objects of Pursuit’ of 1822

PBHT017E * 9780863412554

The notebook that we are publishing here is a remarkable
document. Kept by one of the major scientists of the nineteenth
century, at a time when he had made his first important discoveries
and was preparing for those major findings that would propel him
into the very first ranks, it is a window into the thoughts of a
scientific genius and, at the same time, a revealing portrait of
the culture and community of a new century in the history of
science. In 1822, when the notebook was in use, Michael Faraday
(1791-1867) was employed to assist Sir Humphry Davy and W. T.
Brande in the Laboratories of the Royal Institution in London's
Albemarle Street. He was also the assistant 'superintendent' or
manager of the 'House'. His comment suggests that he found this
notebook more useful than his previous notebooks had been. Indeed,
as even the casual reader will soon discover, it is a remarkable
notebook. At first sight it could seem a modest effort, almost a
list of topics with the occasional suggested experiment thrown in.
One cannot always judge importance by size, however, and it is our
belief that the 1822 notebook, modest though it seems, contains
insights for us that are not to be had from the later diaries.
Faraday must have thought so too, as his title page comment
indicates. Was he simply restating an old cliche, that notebooks
were useful to all scientists? We think not, because his comment
refers to 'such a collection.' He has singled out something about
this one that makes it particularly useful and that he recommends
to others. This demands that we pay close attention to exactly what
sort of notebook this is. It is not a diary; the organization is
topical not chronological. It is more like an 'idea-book,' a place
to keep suggestions and puzzles for later work, rather than a
record of things done. It is the last existing notebook Faraday
designed to have a prearranged topical outline; later, as we show
below, he switched to a more diary-like format, eventually
incorporating an interesting 'addressing' scheme rather than
outline formats. In the present case, however, the existence of the
outline format suggests that he used the book in a back-and-forth,
more or less parallel fashion rather than as a serial record. It is
a delineation of parallel enterprises, not sequential ones. This
attempt to articulate parallel research programmes probably
reflects Faraday's new confidence as an independent researcher,
resulting from his discovery, in September 1821, that an electric
current can be made to rotate continuously about a magnet. This one
contains only plans for his own work and occasional annotations
indicating when a project has been attempted or completed. We have
tried to make Faraday's insights and his plans accessible by
transcribing the entire notebook, together with enough supporting
critical apparatus, including a glossary, to enable a modern reader
to appreciate the qualities of imagination and the historical
context of one of the greatest scientists of the nineteenth
century. Our introduction provides a brief biographical sketch and
a detailed description of the notebook itself. We go on to suggest
some interpretations of the content of the notebook and to sketch
its importance in the larger scheme of Faraday's almost life-long
habit of keeping extensive notes. Finally, we indicate the
principles followed in transcribing the notebook, and preparing it
for publication. The main body of this book is, of course, the
reproduction and transcription, found on pages 2 to 109. At the
end, we have provided the glossary (built along rather unusual
lines) and an index, to facilitate the reader's own understanding
and interpretive activity.

Authors

R. D. Tweney and D. Gooding