To his mother he wrote in August: At present, except when I resolve to be idle for health’s sake, I devote every moment to labours which I hope will not be wholly ineffectual in benefiting society, and which will not be wholly inglorious for my country hereafter; and the feeling of this is the reward which will continue to keep me employed. On September 13 he wrote in the Laboratory Book this verbal picture of his laboratory: Objects much wanted in the laboratory of the Royal Institution: Cleanliness, neatness, and regularity. The laboratory must be cleaned every morning when operations are going on before ten o’clock. It is the business of W. Payne[38] to do this, and it is the duty of Mr. E. Davy to see that it is done and to take care of and keep in order the apparatus. There must be in the laboratory pen, ink, paper, and wafers, and these must not be kept in the slovenly manner in which they usually are kept. I am now writing with a pen and ink such as was never used in any other place. There are wanting small graduated glass tubes blown here and measured to ten grains of mercury. There are wanting four new stopcocks fitted to our air-pump. There are wanting twelve green glass retorts. There are wanting most of the common metallic and saline solutions, such as acetate of copper, nitrate of silver, nitrate of barytes--most of these made in the laboratory. All the wine-glasses should be cleaned. And, as all operation ceases at six o’clock in the evening, there is plenty of time for getting things in order before night; but if they are not got into order the same night, they must be by ten o’clock the next day. The laboratory is constantly in a state of dirt and confusion. There must be a roller with a coarse towel for washing the hands and a basin of water and soap, and every week at least a whole morning must be devoted to the inspection and ordering of the voltaic battery. For Thursday--_i.e._ to-morrow--the experiments in the morning are on the excitation of radiant heat and electricity in different gases. For the experiments on Friday, which will be on tellurium, there are wanting very pure hydrogen; two bottles of _new_, very pure oxymuriatic gas; two new stopcocks cemented into retorts, with stoppers, either green or white; some tubes of this bore [Illustration] or near it, closed at one end and six inches long; a spirit lamp made from a phial of large bore and the tube larger than that at present used. [Illustration] On September 14 he tried various experiments on the excitation of electricity. The Laboratory Book says, ‘Present in these and the former experiments, Mr. Cavendish, Dr. Herschel, Mr. Herschel, Sir Charles Blagden (not in the second set on electricity); Dr. Wollaston, Mr. Warburton.’