Faraday and Austria^*

Abstract

IN the autumn of the year 1814, towards the end of the Napoleonic drama, a travelling coach wended its way southwards over the picturesque mountain roads of the Austrian Tyrol. Its three occupants were the celebrated Sir Humphry Davy, his haughty wife, and a modest young man who played the part of a scientific assistant, and also, but with suppressed reluctance, that of valet. Waterfalls thundered down into the valleys, and the eyes of the young man followed them in wonderment. What were his thoughts? Deeply religious by nature and upbringing, was he simply admiring the works of the Almighty, or had he a glimmering presentiment of the possibility of harnessing these vast sources of energy for the benefit of mankind, to the realisation of which his later discoveries were to supply the key?