HARDING, Reginald T. (1870–1914)

Autograph letter signed, to a Mr Hamel, giving illustrated advice on how to build and maintain a battery for electric shocks, vacuum tubes and electric lighting (20 May 1884)

6pp., on a bifolium and single sheet; 112 x 179mm (folded)

An enthusiastic and very detailed account of how to make a battery, by a 14 year old schoolboy studying at Rugby School. The author is Reginald Tuffley Harding (1870–1917), later to become a solicitor but at the time of this letter an eager experimentalist, asked by his father to explain how to make batteries to one Mr Hamel. Harding goes on to give a fully illustrated account of how to build and mantain the battery, where to buy materials from (James Lancaster & Sons, Birmingham, and Wooley & Sons, Manchester), which books to read (Dyer, Intensity Coils...), and how much it will all cost. Also, crucially, how to keep safe while administering shocks.

That a 14 year old at Rugby should know all of this is perhaps unsurprising. Rugby School was one of the very first in the country to have its own dedicated science lab and was the leading school in the country for scientific education.

Good condition: worn at the folds and somewhat dulled.