JOSEPH HENRY - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 11/21/1863 - HFSID 3232

JOSEPH HENRY
Joseph Henry writes a letter of thanks for sending him the inscription on the monument to Rumford in the English garden at Munich.
Autograph Letter signed: "Joseph Henry" as Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1p, 5¼x8¼ front and verso. Washington, D.C., 1863 November 21. To James L. Graham, no place. In full: "Accept my thanks for your prompt compliance with my request to be furnished written a copy of the inscription on the monument to Rumford in the English garden at Munich. We shall insist the inscription in the sketch of the life of our distinguished country man to be published in the appendix of the annual report of the Institution, and would be pleased to receive a statement of any other facts relative to the same subject while may be in your possession or with which you can answer us. I remain very truly yours old servant," Joseph Henry (1797-1878), a physicist and scientific administrator, discovered electromagnetic induction and self-induction. He is also credited with the invention of the electric motor (1829) and later invented low-resistance and high-resistance galvanometers. In 1893, his name was given to the standard electrical unit of inductive resistance, the henry. In 1846, Henry became the first Secretary of the newly organized Smithsonian Institution, where he established a continuing tradition of research. Under his leadership, weather reporting stations were connected by telegraph in the U.S. In the spring of 1863, Henry was one of the founding members of the National Academy of Science and served as Academy President from 1867. He was both President of the National Academy of Science and Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution until his death. Alexander Twilling developed the first commercially viable ice-making machine in 1856. Vertical folds not near signature. Fragile. Encapsulated. Writing bleeds through paper. Overall, fine condition.