Joseph Henry's Letter to John R. Henry (July 9, 1831)

Summary

Letter from Joseph Henry, then a teacher at the Albany Academy and later first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, to John R. Henry, July 9, 1831. In the letter, Henry describes the magnet that he constructed for Benjamin Silliman. Shortly after completing an article on his electromagnet for Benjamin Silliman's "American Journal of Science," Joseph Henry began making a large electromagnet for Silliman to demonstrate to his students at Yale University, c. 1830s. The 82.5 -pound magnet proved capable of supporting more than 2,000 pounds.

Subject

• Silliman, Benjamin 1816-1885
• Albany Academy
• Yale University

Category

Historic Images of the Smithsonian

Notes

The accompanying PDF contains SIA2012-0932 and SIA2012-0933, which are pages scanned from the edited transcript of the original version and notes in the Joseph Henry Papers Volume 1, pages 348-349.

Contained within

• Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7001, Box 7, Folder: 8 - July - September 1831
• Reingold, Nathan, et al, eds., The Papers of Joseph Henry, Volume 1, The Albany Years: December 1797-October 1832 (Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1972), 348-349

Contact information

Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu

Date

July 9, 1831

Restrictions & Rights

No restrictions

Topic

• Electric apparatus and appliances
• Scientific apparatus and instruments
• Secretaries
• Letters
• Inventions
• Science
• Electromagnets
• Educators
• Experiments
• Electromagnetism
• Teachers
• Electromagnet
• Science--Experiments

Place

United States

Form/Genre

• Document
• Paper

ID Number

SIA2012-2935 and SIA2012-2936 and SIA2012-2937

Physical description

Number of Images: 3 ; Color: Color ; Size: 7 7/8w x 9 3/4h ; Type of Image: Document ; Medium: Paper

Full Record

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