John Tyndall to Faraday   9 May 1856

May 9th, 1856.

My dear Mr Faraday

The following note from the War Department reached me last night, it contains my doom.

War Department Pall Mall | 8th, May 1856

Sir

I am directed by the secretary of State for War1 to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 1st instant, and to inform you that his Lordship considers the explanation you have furnished to be quite satisfactory2.

I have the honour &c | H.R Drewry3

J. Tyndall Esqr

I opened this letter with the neutrality of a man who has really made up his mind for the worst, but I confess it gives me great pleasure to think that the matter has thus terminated.

I hope you are improving, and that you will soon return quite restored. This weather is awfully trying - I was at a very low ebb in my lecture of yesterday, but barring the failure of a difficult experiment or two, managed to drag through pretty well. Frankland is in town for a few days and Despretz - who desires me to present his respects to you - is coming. We purposed starting on Tuesday evening4, but he has not yet appeared.

I hope Mrs Faraday is well. I should think that Folk[e]stone cliff [blank in TS] very cold for her at present.

Last Wednesday evening I was at Lord Ashburton’s5 and met Wheatstone there. We had a conversation about the stereoscope and I was pained to see the desire manifested so strongly to deprive Brewster of what he really merits -- or to reduce his merits to zero6. Wheatstone says he must give me a lesson on the subject; that is, he must instruct my muddy understanding -- the matter appears to me as plain as a proposition of Euclid7: but it does not seem as if he had really mastered any theory but his own.

good bye. | Ever Yours most truly | John Tyndall

1
Fox Maule, second Baron Panmure (1801-1874, ODNB). Secretary of State for War, 1855-1858.
2
This relates to a letter Tyndall had written to the Timesabout some examining for commissions in the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers that he had undertaken. Faraday had advised Tyndall on the best course of action, Tyndall, Diary, 1 May 1856, 6a: 312. See Tyndall (1868), 267-8 and Eve and Creasey (1945), 62-3.
3
Henry Runciman Drewry (d.1886, age 84, GRO). Chief Clerk of the War Office. Royal Kalendar,1860, p.279.
4
That is 6 May 1856.
5
William Bingham Baring, 2nd Baron Ashburton (1799-1864, ODNB). Conservative politician.
6
For the controversy over whether Wheatstone or Brewster had invented the stereoscope see Morrison-Low (1984), 62. The controversy was ignited by the publication of Brewster (1856).
7
Euclid (fl. 295 BCE, DSB). Greek mathematician.

Bibliography

BREWSTER, David (1856): The Stereoscope: Its History, Theory, and Construction, with its Application to the Fine and Useful Arts, and to Education, London.

TYNDALL, John (1868): “On Faraday as a Discoverer”, Proc. Roy. Inst., 5: 199-272.

Please cite as “Faraday3139,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 10 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday3139