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Manuscript volumes, correspondence and papers by Michael Faraday including material based on original Faraday documents 1809-1961, comprising six volumes in total covering subjects on botany; chemistry; colour; fire eating; galvanism; gas lighting; light; magnetism; meteorology; lightning; preserving drawings; removing glass stoppers; scientific apparatus; details of his visits with Davy to France and Italy 1813- 1814; visits to copper works and state mines in Wales 1819; visit to the Isle of Wight 1824; manuscript notes on lectures given by Faraday to the City Philosophical Society 1816-1819; general observations; experiments; notes including scientific subjects as well as anagrams; etymology; recipes for gin and ginger beer; humour; love; memory; oratory; philosophy; Rochefoucault; Shakespeare; 'Chemical Love Letter.' 1816-1846; chemical notes [1822]; notes on experiments on electric lamps powered by batteries 1854 and a letter to John Tyndall; c 750 manuscript correspondence between Faraday and scientists, politicians and the general public 1812-1867; letters and draft letters by Faraday written from the Royal Institution 1853-1863; committe minutes from a subcommitte set up to conduct experiments in optical glass 1828-1835; papers relating to the wear and production of coinage at the Royal Mint 1835; papers relating to table-turning 1853-1864; Faraday's French passport 1856; notes on Faraday including his illness and his refusal of the post of President at the Royal Institution 1864-1872.

These papers show Davy's first ideas for an electric telegraph from his early sketches in 1836 of a frictional electric telegraph to one worked by electromagentism which he developed 1836-1839. His first patent was lodged in 1837 in opposition to Cooke and Wheatstone's first patent. The papers indicate his efforts to find a purchaser for the patent rights and to establish a company to develop the telegraph. He made agreements with several business men but none of these arrangements bore any fruit. He also negotiated with the railway companies and demonstrated the telegraph for them. The papers record the efforts of his father, Thomas Davy, and several others, to continue Davy's negotiations with the railway companies and the arrangements which were made to re-exhibit a working model of the telegraph. The papers also relate to the sale of the patent to the Electric Telegraph Company in 1847. Fahie's memoir on Davy is included in the papers.

Personal and business correpondence of William Fothergill Cooke, mostly relating to his dispute with Charles Wheatstone, together with legal documents (copies and originals) connected with the case, in 7 bound volumes. Comprising personal correspondence, mainly to Cooke's mother relating to his hopes and expectations of the telegraph. The correspondence is mainly 1836-1841 with fewer letters for 1843, 1844, 1860, 1868, 1869, 1875, 1879 and 1880. There is also correspondence with Latimer Clark both before and after Cooke's death concerning a history of British Telegraphy and a life of Sir William Fothergill Cooke. Copies of this some of this correspondence can be found in Volume VII, and these are easier to read than the extensively crossed originals; Correspondence relating to railway companies, arbitration, and creation of the Electric Telegraph Company. The correspondence also shows the causes of the breakdown of his partnership with Wheatstone, the arbitration process and subsequent agreement to purchase Wheatstone's royalties in the shares; Correspondence between Mr Robert Wilson, solicitor acting for William Fothergill Cooke, and William Richardson, solicitor acting for Professor Wheatstone, relating to the arbitration between Cooke and Wheatstone, frequently concerning sending of drafts of agreement, with amendments, and with arranging appointments for arbitrators, and witnesses for the arbitration; Papers concerned with the arbitration between Cooke and Wheatstone, including bound copies of agreements and articles referred to in the arbitration; Papers submitted to the Arbitrators, Sir Marc Isambard Brunel and John Frederic Daniell in 1841, mainly copies of evidence. They represent Cooke and Wheatstone's cases, and the Arbitrators' decision, with one later patent granted to Sir William Fothergill Cooke. There are also some poems about Autralia or the Central World and Neptune at the end of the volume; Papers concerning assignment by Wheatstone of all royalties and shares to Cooke, including extracts of letters and transfers and assignments of inventions, rights in patents and shares separating Wheatstone and Cooke's business affairs; Copies of letters, mainly from Volume I of the collection made by George Bristow of the successor firm to Wilson and Harrison with the idea of publishing them on the 50th anniversary of the first Patent for the Electric Telegraph. The Volume contains copies of three letters between Bristow and Latimer Clark, and copies of extracts of other letters. Several letters were cut out for publication in 1893. There are also some notes made by a clerk at Bristow's concerning the other original material and its whereabouts, and also references to 'The Electric Telegraph: Was It Invented by Professor Wheatstone?' in two volumes by Sir W F Cooke, 1856-1857. The copies are easier to read than the extensively crossed originals.

Correspondence, comprising a private letter book 1863-1867, and correspondence and reports relating to the laying of the West Indies cable 1869-1870. The private letter book contains bound letters refering to cable laying in India, the West Indies and Brazil, resistance testing to find faults on cables in a long letter to Fleeming Jenkin, mining companies with which Bright was involved, the Steam Engine Improvement Company and the Railway Lubricating Company. The volume contains many blank pages and some pages have been cut out. Some letters are illegible because of the very faint copy, and there appears to be a double impression on some pages suggesting that a second letter may have been copied onto the same page. The loose correspondence relates to the setting up of the West India and Panama Telegraph Company and includes reports and correspondence concerning the laying of the cable. Some of the papers were used in a court case in 1872 between the West India and Panama Telegraph Company and the India Rubber Company for failing in their contractual obligations.