Incidental to the 'historic sketch,' he repeated almost all the experiments there referred to; and these, added to his own subsequent work, made him practical master of all that was then known regarding the voltaic current.

In 1821, he also touched upon a subject which subsequently received his closer attention--the vaporization of mercury at common temperatures; and immediately afterwards conducted, in company with Mr.Stodart, experiments on the alloys of steel.

He was accustomed in after years to present to his friends razors formed from one of the alloys then discovered.
During Faraday's hours of liberty from other duties, he took up subjects of inquiry for himself; and in the spring of 1823, thus self-prompted, he began the examination of a substance which had long been regarded as the chemical element chlorine, in a solid form, but which Sir Humphry Davy, in 1810, had proved to be a hydrate of chlorine, that is, a compound of chlorine and water.

Faraday first analysed this hydrate, and wrote out an account of its composition.

This account was looked over by Davy, who suggested the heating of the hydrate under pressure in a sealed glass tube.