Abstract
Dr. Clement Webb and Prof. Bernard Cohen discuss in Nature of February 16, p. 196, the origins of two anecdotes associated with Faraday's demonstration of magneto-electricity mentioned in my book “Discovery”, published in 1916. In correspondence with Sir Henry Tizard a short time ago, I suggested that Faraday was aware of Franklin's apt reply, “What is the use of a new-born child?” when asked the use of an invention, and he quoted it in connexion with his own discovery when asked a similar question. In my book, the inquiry was said to have been made at the end of a lecture at the Royal Institution whereas, as Prof. Cohen shows, the occasion was a lecture at the City Philosophical Society and the subject was not magneto-electricity but the discovery of chlorine by Scheele.
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GREGORY, R. Authenticity of Scientific Anecdotes. Nature 157, 305 (1946). https://doi.org/10.1038/157305b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/157305b0
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