Dear Sir
I send you the promised memoir2 within, I believe, the promised time –
It will speak for itself so it is needless for me to dwell upon it.
In the commencement I thought it very necessary to be clear in the description of the mode of experiment adopted. I hope you wont consider that I have degenerated into prolixity.
If any thoughts of this kind should strike you I not only give you full liberty to make any alterations you may think necessary but shall feel obliged to you for doing so.
The definition of the strength of a magnet which I have given is not perhaps the most philosophical but it has the merit of being practical; it sets the precise equivalent of magnetic strength before the reader – an equivalent which requires no abstraction to render it clear to the mind, for it is tangible to the eye.
I could have wished to have spent twice as much time over the matter and will assuredly return to it, but I intend to go to Berlin in 5 or 6 weeks and in the mean time must, according to promise, make an investigation on the old subject in company with prof. Knoblauch.3
This investigation I trust to send you before I leave Marburg.4
Prof. Magnus has been kind enough to promise to make room for me. I intend to work in Berlin for 3 or 4 months.
Would you when you next write have the goodness to let me know when the meeting of the British association will take place at Ipswich? If I can manage it I will be there. July 2nd/5
A thought struck me a few days ago in which I should like to have your council. Do you think a course of public lectures would be well received in London during the exhibition.6 If you encouraged me I should not mind carrying over 300 of Bunsen’s cells for the purpose of exhibiting those gorgeous electric experiments.
I shall be much obliged by your having the enclosed7 posted for me.
As you see, I write to Frankland and have mentioned the memoir – if it be a convenience to you he will correct the proofs.8
I will post you a translation of the paper by Provostaye & Desains mentioned in one of my recent notes9 within the coming week.10
Another Paper from Plücker has appeared in Poggendorff11 – what do you think of it? Will you have it? – I have not yet had time to read it and dare not delay the memoir longer.
I have now only to repeat the request that if it be possible you will give the accompanying a place in your March number.12
There are two friends of mine engaged at a translation of it for Poggendorff,13 but you will have it a month in advance.
I am dear sir | most sincerely yours | John Tyndall
Wm Francis Esqre | &c &c
I have one favour more to beg, and that is that you would get up 30 or 40 copies of the memoir for me in the same manner as you put up the copies of the second memoir on the magneto-optic properties of crystals,14 and send a copy to each of the following addresses
Capt. Wynne, Royal Engrs | Harrow
George Edmondson Esqre | Queenwood College, Stockbridge, Hants
George Phillips Esqre | West Parade, Huddersfield
John S. Smith Esqre | Edith Cottages, North End, Fullham,
or office of Leigh Hunts Journal | 300 Strand
Wm Francis Esqre | &c &c
Dr Charles Mackay | Brecknock Crescent | Camden Town15
StBPL T&F, Authors’ letters
3 or 4 February 1851: dated on the basis of letters 0465 and 0466 (4 February), both of which say that the memoir to the Phil. Mag. was posted in the same mail. This letter was therefore written either the same day or the previous day.
promised memoir . . . promised time: J. Tyndall, ‘On the Laws of Magnetism’, Phil. Mag., 1:4 (April 1851), pp. 265–95. Tyndall promised the memoir on magnetism, at ever closer time intervals, in letters 0459, 0461 and 0462. The processes of correction and publication can be followed in many letters over the following six weeks.
an investigation . . . with prof. Knoblauch: presumably the joint investigation referred to previously in letter 0461, n. 10.
This investigation … leave Marburg: there are no further references to this investigation. It seems that it came to nothing.
July 2nd: these words are inserted, as if Tyndall found the date himself after asking the question.
lectures … during the exhibition: the exhibition (letter 0399, n. 15), was to open in May. The lectures did not eventuate, but Tyndall’s proposal initiated Francis’s suggestion (letter 0470, n. 7) that Tyndall give an evening lecture at the British Association.
the enclosed: probably the letter to Frankland mentioned in the following sentence.
proofs: Tyndall had suggested that Frankland correct the proofs in letter 0462.
the paper by Provostaye … recent notes: the article by Provostaye and Desains is the first of those proposed in letter 0461 (n. 14); see that letter for the French source.
within the coming week: sent about five days later with letter 0467.
Another Paper … in Poggendorff: Plücker and Beer, ‘Ueber die magnetischen Axen der Krystalle und ihre Beziehung zur Krystallform und den optischen Axen’, Poggend. Annal., 82:1 ([January] 1851), pp. 42–74. As always, Tyndall referred to this jointly authored paper by Plücker’s name alone.
March number: the memoir was not published until April (see n. 2 above).
two friends … translation of it for Poggendorff: the translators are not identified, although Heinrich Debus, who was becoming closer to Tyndall at this time, is one possibility. The translation was published as Tyndall, ‘Ueber die Gesetze des Magnetismus’, Poggend. Annal., 83:5 ([May] 1850), pp. 1–37.
second memoir … of crystals: see letter 0403, n. 2.
or office … Town: the second line of Smith’s address is squeezed into the margin of the manuscript, and Mackay is an afterthought, his address being added below the second inscription to Francis.
Please cite as “Tyndall0464,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0464