Faraday's Researches and the United States

Abstract

THE spirit and method of Faraday are as worthy of study as the results that flowed from them. Almost anyone could rehearse his cardinal contributions to present-day understanding of magnetic and electric fields, and could cite his electrochemical researches and his studies of magnetooptic and diamagnetic phenomena. No one ever before covered so wide a field of pure research, or discovered and disclosed such a grand territory of expanding and continuing usefulness. No one ever tapped so many sources from which living water flowed. But for anyone, however closely connected with that particular field of pioneering, to attempt to enlarge upon Faraday's work, seems to be lifting one's self by mere words into a position where the light of Faraday's character warms the writer without of necessity illuminating the rest of the world.