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Joseph Henry was not initially impressed with Abraham Lincoln upon making his obligatory visit to the new president soon after Lincoln had settled into “that big white house.” Henry’s conversation with Lincoln was uncomfortable and brief. Was Lincoln the uneducated, uncultured boor rumors made him out to be, one who could never understand the high intellectual ambitions of the Smithsonian Institution? Was the open dislike of Henry’s family for the man who General McClellan would later call an uncouth “gorilla,” justified?
As the war rolled on Henry became the first, albeit informal, presidential science adviser. Despite his first impression, Henry discovered that Lincoln showed “a comprehensive grasp of every subject on which he has conversed.” He was impressed with the many books that Lincoln had read, and even more impressed that he “remembers their contents better than I do.” What’s more, Henry could see that Lincoln was self-deprecating about his level of knowledge. One time, Henry recalled, “I desired to induce him to understand, and look favorably upon, a change which I wish to make in the policy of the Light-House Board in a matter requiring some scientific knowledge. He professed his ignorance, or rather, he ridiculed his knowledge of it, and yet he discussed it as intelligently” as any knowledgeable scientist.
[Adapted from my forthcoming book]
David J. Kent is a science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.
Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!
estebang said:
It is worth noting that Joseph Henry was the fellow for whom the unit of inductance is named.
There is another famous Henry that studied the solubility of gases in liquids.
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davidjkentwriter said:
Indeed, Henry has his own unit. Henry’s early work set the stage for later work by Morse (telegraphs) and Tesla/Edison/etc. You might even say Faraday got famous because of work Henry did. Henry really should have patented more.
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estebang said:
I think it would be intriguing to explore the parallels between Henry and Faraday.
I have a couple of Faraday’s (20 pound notes) sitting in a bowl on the side table. I think it would be nice if, in the US, we could honor Henry and many others, with such notes.
However paper currency does not mean much of anything anymore. The artwork is nice in some countries though. Iconography is shifting.
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davidjkentwriter said:
I’m sure the biographies of Henry have gone into how Henry’s ideas devolved to Faraday and what he did with them. As with everything else, tracing who “had the idea first” can be difficult, as where the line is between idea and development of the idea. Henry was infamously slow to publish or patent, which cost him.
Tomorrow I’m having lunch with the Editor of the Joseph Henry Papers project, so maybe I can find out more.
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estebang said:
That sounds like a good discussion may occur.
Henry should certainly be more celebrated in the US than he is at the moment.
But I did a little reading. Henry visited Faraday in 1830? . Faraday published on induction in 1832 and so did Henry.
This is a good read on the roles that both played
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0143-0807/38/1/015207/meta
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davidjkentwriter said:
Thanks for the great link. I hadn’t seen that article and will now find a way to insert some points into my chapter on Henry and Lincoln.
Henry definitely does deserve more recognition for his scientific work, which was overshadowed by his amazing work getting the Smithsonian up and running (not to mention his roles on the Permanent Commission of the Navy, the National Academy of Sciences, the Lazzaroni, the Lighthouse Board, etc, etc, etc). They guy was a workhorse.
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estebang said:
There seems to be some uncertainty about when Henry and Faraday actually met. I’d like to find a primary source for that.
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davidjkentwriter said:
I think I read something about it but don’t recall where. I’ll check my notes.
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estebang said:
The Edison Tech center says 1830, but most other sources say 1837. Maybe both are true.
He did have an April-September 1837 European trip.
Click to access Joseph-Henry-House-Draft-7.pdf
Anyway, it does sort of influence how one interprets how Faraday and Henry came upon their first ideas of induction. They do seem to come at it from different viewpoints.
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davidjkentwriter said:
Henry first met Faraday on the 1837 trip to Europe (Edison Tech is in error about 1830), but there was some knowledge of each other prior to that.
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Leigh W. Smith said:
Great anecdote, David. One of my favorite (self-written) history-inspired short stories touches on Lincoln and meteorology, as well as some mid-19th century pseudoscience (specifically seances). In any case, best wishes on the forthcoming Lincoln book.
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davidjkentwriter said:
Thanks, Leigh. Is your story about Lincoln and meteorology online? I’d love to read it.
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Leigh W. Smith said:
I believe it is, though it is admittedly ‘light’ on the science aspects. Let me look it up and get back to you on that this evening after work. It’s somewhere on my blog, I believe. Thanks for asking!
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davidjkentwriter said:
Great. Looking forward to reading it.
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Leigh W. Smith said:
Here you go, David. Apparently it’s already been 4 years since I posted the story (on Presidents’ Day in 2014). Here is the direct link to my blog for it, since you asked (and thanks kindly for that!): https://leighswordsmithery.wordpress.com/2014/02/18/presidents-day-short-fiction/
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davidjkentwriter said:
I liked that very much. You really captured the anguish of their lost Willie and the weight of the war. BTW, I had lunch a couple of days ago with the Editor of the Joseph Henry Papers project and asked him about the story of Henry and the spiritualist. Seems there is some truth in it. I’m also including some (brief) info on Henry’s meteorological network leading up to the war and maintained partially during the war. Cool stuff.
Thanks for sending the link!
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