A memorial of Joseph Henry / Published by order of Congress.

  • Smithsonian Institution.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A memorial of Joseph Henry / Published by order of Congress. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    520/548 (page 506)
    Each of these philosophers worked with simple instruments mostly constructed by his own hands, and by methods so direct that he appeared to have an almost intuitive perception into the workings of nature; and each gave great care to the composition of his writings, sending his discoveries into the world clothed in simple and elegant English. Finally, each loved science more than money, and his Creator more than either. There was sympathy between these men; and Henry loved to dwell on the hours that he and Bache had spent in Faraday's society. I shall never forget Henry's account of his visit to King's College, London, where Faraday, Wheatstone, Daniell and he had met to try and evolve the electric spark from the thermopile. Each in turn attempted it and failed. Then came Henry's turn. He succeeded: calling in the aid of his discovery of the effect of a long interpolar wire wrapped around a piece of soft iron. Faraday became as wild as a boy, and, jumping up, shouted: Hurrah for the Yankee experiment. And Faraday and Wheatstone reciprocated the high estimation in which Henry held them. During a visit to England, not long before Wheatstone's death, he told me that Faraday and he had, after Henry's classical investigation of the induced currents of dif- ferent orders, written a joint letter to the Council of the Royal Society, urging that the Copley medal, that laurel wreath of science, should be bestowed on Henry. On further consultation with members of the Council it was decided to defer the honor till it would come with greater 6clat, when Henry had continued further his researches in electricity. Henry's removal to Washington inter- rupted these investigations. Wheatstone promised to give me this letter, to convey to Henry as an evidence of the high appreciation which Faraday and he had for his genius; but Wheatstone's untimely death prevented this. Both Faraday and Henry gave much thought to the philosophy of education, and in the main their ideas agreed. I may, in this connection, be excused for reading abstracts from a letter from Henry soon after he had received the news that I had given my son his name. He says—what may be news to the most of you: I did