3 Park Place
Edinburgh
14 Nov 1857
My dear Sir
It gave Mrs Forbes and myself much pleasure to hear that you, Mrs Talbot <1> & your family are to spend Another Winter in Edinburgh We shall have the pleasure of calling at 4 Atholl Crescent. <2>
I am in better health than when you were last here though still by no means Strong. I had intended passing the past summer in Switzerland but was unfortunate enough to be taken ill at Folkestone and to have to turn back.
When you were last here you very kindly offered <3> to introduce me to the wonders of Ruhmkorff’s Induction Coil, <4> but my health did not then permit me to undertake experiments with which I was not the immediately engaged.
If however it were not inconvenient to you now to bring the Coil I should be grateful to take a lesson from you. For I still know it only by description. I suppose that yours has a condenser.
Let me beg however that you will not incommode yourself with this apparatus unless you have a suitable opportunity.
I remain dear Sir Yours very faithfully
James D. Forbes.
H. Fox Talbot Esq.
[envelope:]
[added in WHFT's hand:] Profr. Forbes
H. Fox Talbot Esq
Laycock Abbey
Chippenham
Notes:
1. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
2. In the West End of Edinburgh. The Talbots rented No 4 during the winter of 1855–1856 and again in 1857–1858.
3. See Doc. No: 00464.
4. An induction coil – a current-carrying wire designed to produce magnetic fluctuations which in turn create electrical resistance – devised by Heinrich Daniel Rühmkorff (1803–1877), who was born in Hanover but spent most of his life in Paris. His high-voltage induction coil of 1852 could produce sparks more than 30 cm in length. He subsequently designed a double-wound induction coil, from which evolved the alternating-current transformer of later electricity experiments. He worked with many English scientists including Joseph Bramah.