212 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
Faraday's work in other branches of Science—and its
developments.
Before Faraday's time observers believed that only iron
could be magnetised. Faraday found that wood, beef, apples
and man himself were acted on by magnets. He proved that the
electricities from a voltaic cell, a frictional machine, a thermopile,
a dynamo, or an electric fish were all identical in character. In
his laws of electrolysis he linked electricity and chemistry. He
believed "that chemical affinity was a consequence of the
"electrical attraction of particles of different kinds of matter."
Electrolysis to-day provides us with bleaching liquors, caustic
soda and iodoform.
Accurate permanent records of human activity are made
possible in the flat by book-illustrations, in the. solid form by
electrotype reproductions, and audibly in gramophone records
made from an electrically deposited master shell.
Faraday was the first man to try making steel rustless. His
chromium steel (2.36%) may be considered as the pioneer of
stainless steels.
In 1825 Faraday discovered benzene, whose derivatives
to-day develop our monochrome photographs ; but another
quarter of a century elapsed before other workers produced a
dyes tuff from benzene. Faraday witnessed this colourful
development of his discovery in 1861 at a meeting of the Chemical
Society. In Faraday's time the vegetable kingdom provided
the dyes required. Modern research on the colouring matter
of flowers shows that a connection exists between the colour
and the number of hydroxyl (OH) groups in the colouring
material. Faraday showed prophetic foresight when in 1852 he
said, "It would be a great thing to trace the state of combined
"oxygen by the colour of its compound."
The kindly fruits of the earth follow the flowers, and, thanks
to Faraday's labours, we enjoy a greater variety of food than
was available in his day. When Faraday first worked on the
liquefaction of gases, Sir Humphry Davy, in 1823, foresaw its
application for producing cold, for he says, "there is reason to
"believe that it may be successfully employed for the preservation
"of animal and vegetable substances for the purposes of food."
The very latest development is the "quick-chilling" of fish
without loss of flavour.