1831. ÆT.39–40.

It will be the object of this chapter first to describe the great scientific work which Faraday did at this period; secondly, by means of his titles and the letters which he received, to show the reputation he obtained in consequence of his discoveries; and thirdly, as far as possible by means of his own letters, to give a picture of the character which he made and kept during the time of his great success.

On August 29, 1831, Faraday began his ‘Electrical Researches.’

In December 1824 he believed with all his energy that as voltaic electricity powerfully affects a magnet, so the magnet ought to exert a reaction upon the electric current. Guided by this idea, he made an experiment, of which one part (the passage of a magnet through a metallic helix connected with a galvanometer), if separated from the rest of the experiment, would then have made the great discovery of magneto-electricity.

This experiment he published in the ‘Quarterly Journal of Science,’ July 1825, p. 338.

In November 1825, also, he had failed to discover voltaic induction. He passed a current through one wire, which was lying close to another wire, which communicated with a galvanometer, and found ‘no result.’ The momentary existence of the phenomena of induction then escaped him.