Faraday’s Cave
Photographing objects from a time when modern science was still young
There are museums in London every tourists knows about, like the Natural History Museum or the Science Museum in exhibition road. There are the famous art galleries like the Tate Modern. The Faraday Museum, located in the basement of The Royal Institution in Albemarle Street, just off Piccadilly, is not one of those.
Michael Faraday’s impact on modern science and technology can hardly be understated, though memories of him are a bit scattered over London. Apart from the small museum there is also the modern memorial Elephant & Castle dedicated to him and a statue at the north end of Waterloo Bridge.
My fascination with 19th century science and my long term plan to tell the story of it in photos finally brought me here last year.
When I arrived I felt a bit at a loss: Having entered the massive building I had to ask at the desk for the way: “Just go down the stairs to the basement, then turn left, through the door..” the receptionist told me, seemingly used to such inquiries.
Faraday worked in that basement at The Royal Institution, founded in 1799, and this is still where the collection can be found, hidden away. It is not a museum as such, more a loose collection of objects filling a long hallway and a couple of rooms, spanning the time from Faraday’s early work until the late 19th century.
Faraday attended lectures by the English chemist Humphry Davy, who soon became his mentor. When Davy damaged his eyesight in an accident with chemicals in 1813 he decided to employ Faraday as an assistant.
In 1825, Davy retired and Faraday replaced him as the director of the laboratory. He continued working in the institution’s basement, consequently establishing the foundation for the new scientific discipline of electrochemistry.
The laboratory is the early 19th century equivalent of a hack lab. The main hallway of the collection is brightly lit and lined with glass cabinets.
Rather than documenting my visit to the museum, I wanted to capture the objects themselves. The bottles, flasks and tools have that handmade roughness of wood, cast iron and glass that fascinates me.
While Faraday is now mostly known for his work with electricity and electromagnetism, his work included material science, especially glass. Like other scientists of his time he had to create his own tools, find the correct materials to use and create his own scientific test setups.
His work on glass is outstanding. Over a span of seven years, Faraday dedicated much of his time in the laboratory perfecting his recipe for optical quality glass (borosilicate of lead) to be used in his future studies connecting light with magnetism.
I wonder what the basement and his work environment would have looked really like at the time. There must have been more windows, otherwise working there with chemicals would have been extremely dangerous.
But there is no daylight currently, only bright lights for the cabinets, except for the very dark room that contains the preserved (reconstructed?) part of Faraday’s workbench and lab equipment.
I have always loved glass objects and despaired how hard they are to photograph. The rather colourful walls of the collection’s main hallway ( in 2000s style orange and red tones) makes it even harder, and it was the main reason I decided to keep images in black & white.
There is also something disturbing about some of those tools (the raw uninsulated wires, the cast iron tongs). The museum fittingly mentions that Mary Shelley, author of “Frankenstein”, was aware of the activities at The Royal Institutions, and it is believed that Humphrey Davy was the inspiration for one of the characters of her famous novel.
The laboratory setup itself is kept in almost total darkness, likely to avoid damage of the objects by light. In addition it is protected by a thick (and quite reflective) glass wall, which, sadly made it almost impossible to get closer.
I wish I could convince The Royal Institution to let me photograph some of objects taken out of their shelves, but they are probably safer behind glass.
All Photos by Wolfgang Hauptfleisch, 2024
