The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1869-02-10

It was the assistants duty to perform
all those humble and laborious task!
which usually fall to the lot of those
3 who prepare experiments for chemica
, lectures. He fitted corks :-he repair
ed apparatus; he prepared solution!
and gases and did all the other dirty
work of a laboratory This, however
9 was the farthest possible from being 6
hardship to such a love of science as
Michael Faraday; and when these
duties were done he had still more
than half his time left for studies and
:5exper ments of his own. He improv.
ed his time SO well that, when he had
filed this loyly post for aiew years,
he received the appointment of profes
sor of chemistry, and from that time
forward he was wholly employed in
discovering and communicating scien.
tife truth. -....-...--
or all the sons of men those who
Der eft mankind most, and get from
mankind least (that is, considering the
services the render), are genuine men
of science. The sala y attached to
this pro essorship of chemistry, made
forever illustrous by Faraday's having
held, was eighty pounds a year, the
use of two or three rooms with fuel
and candles enough to warm and light
: them. This was actually the income
of Professor Faraday during the years
when he made his greatest discoveries.
And for such man it was enough.
, Small as it was it gave him the COM
mand of all his time, and the Institu-
ton provided him with an ample APP
paratus and competent assistants.
/ only wish we had in each of our
large cities, such as New York, Bos-
ton, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New
o leans, St. Louis, Chicago and Gin
4, cinnati, a scientific institution which
would give to only one man of science
Ich an opportunity as the Royal In
stitution f London gave to Davy aid
Faraday.
Later in life, when the name of
Faraday had become celebrated, the
government added to his salary mo-
dest pension of three hundred pound a
year. It is said, by those who knew
his affairs Intimately, that he never
received, in an, one year of his life,
as much as five hundred pounds. lie
had abundas opportunities to gain
money by analyzing soils, Goals, miner
al waters, and poisoned stomaclls +, but
Faraday, satisfied with his little re-
venues, perterred to spend the whole
of his time in efforts TO discover truth.
Electricity, need hardly say, was
his favorite branch, in which he made
the capital discovery, that the electric
ity produced by friction, and that con-
tanned IN the magnet, are essentially
the same. The substance OF all that
he discov' red and conjectured, is con-
tained in four, or five volumes of small
size, but of intimable value.
He-lived in this world seventv-six
years. During the last years of his
life, he lapsed into a kind of second
childhood, caused probably by an ex
cessive devotion to his favorite pur-
suits.
The Queen gave him suit of ap-
artments at the pleasant palace OF
Hamptofa Court, near London, and
there he peacefully dozed and dream
ed away the evening of h;s life. No
thing reused him, we are told, near
the end of his days, but thunder
storm. He would gaze in rapture up
o the scene, and watch the play of
the lightning with all the eager Curl
ousity of his prime. But when the
clouds broke up, and the storm rolled
away beyond his view, the philosoph-
er sank again into his state of dreamy
upconsciousness.
He was greatly beloved by those
who lived neal enough to him to
know him. He was utterly free from
that corrcd.ng vice of England. that
spiritual imbecility, which Thackkeray
named SnObbevy-gi, ing a foolish,
trivial name to a thing tar from trivial
He always spoke of his father, the
blacksmith, as simply and naturally
as good democratic American would.
If he had been so fortunate as to have
an honest blacksmith for a father. |
When he was lecturing one evening
upon something which he had discov-
cred respecting Illuminating gas, he
concluded, as follows:
"fhus much for my part. I believe
l devised the scheme but / should |
never have carried it into practice but
for the casualty, that / had, and have,
a brother who is gas filter.
Professor Scoffern relates an Incl
dent which occurred when Farday was |
at the height of his celebrity, that |
shows ths simplicity of his charact-
er:
"While was working in the La.
boratory of the Royal Institution,
Faraday came down and gossipped |
about things in gene a. The prep;r T
ations for chemical lecture in, olive
many details OF work not pleasant and |
for The most part dirty. There are
co1ks to be bored and adapted, joints
OF apparatus 10 be made good, stains
to be removed, slops to be disposed of.
That duty, added by the loyal Insti-i
tuion assistant, was mine. Instinc-
Ii ely Farday began to help-not
choosing mere fancy work, however,
but adding rig and left, doing hat
ever he saw had to be done. Hand
ling a retort, l chanced to let it fall,
and then there was slop OF some cor
rostive liquid. In an instant Faraday |
threw some soda on the floor; then
down on his hands and knees he went,
slop-cloth in hand, like an humble
housemaid. Laughing. 1 expressed
my desire TO photograph him then and
th re: he den.ITred to the nose heo-