ABSTRACT
While young Michael Faraday was working in Mr Riebau’s book shop in Blandford Street, just off Baker Street in the centre of London, he had a wide circle of friends, based on the City Philosophical Society. Faraday's closest friend, encountered through the City Philosophical Society, was Benjamin Abbott. Not only were they frequent visitors to one another’s homes but, even though they were living only a mile or two apart in central London, they exchanged letters. In the spring of 1813, Faraday was able to describe to Abbott how Sir Humphry Davy met with a very nasty accident on preparing a new explosive substance, nitrogen trichloride. This compound had been prepared first by the French chemist Dulong, who lost an eye and several fingers when handling it. Two further letters from Faraday to his friend, of October 1812 and May 1813, expand on his feelings for Abbott and on the primacy of personal friendship, especially its moral dimension.
