My Dear Tom,
I wish I had time to write a long letter to you, but I haven’t2 – The money reached me today quite correct – 135 thalers – since I wrote to you3 I received another letter from Edmondson4 in which he expresses his consent to the purchase of £20 worth of apparatus for the college – I have written to him5 to say that I will draw upon him for £30 – will you therefore go to Bang and fill a second draft for £10 at three months? –
If the money reach me within the coming fortnight it will answer and if Bang can send me £5 English currency – ie Sovereigns and £5 German it will be all the more convenient for me –
Would to God that I could say to the bowels open! – I hate to see you hampered by such an impediment – but patience boy it will all work for your good –
When you see my paper6 you will see that I have not been idle in Berlin. A good portion of my results however have been anticipated in a memoir from Bequerell7 in the May number of the Annals der Chemie and Physique – He has not exhausted the matter however, and my method of experimenting is better than his –
Tom all your experiences are known to me – all barring the bowels – all I have to say is hope on hope ever – your work will not always be the dry and splintered affair which it now appears to be – your efforts lack a certain purchase which you will later discover – your present probation is unavoidable
– I had an interview with Humboldt a few days ago – I intended to put him a few home questions and thus extract something from his experience – but was defeated – He spoke straight forward and left me no opportunity. n’importe8 – The same sky bends over him and me
as ever my brother | Tyndall
put down the postage of this The post office is a long way off – and there is a box quite near me.
RI MS JT/1/T/542
[5–6 June 1851]: Hirst wrote ‘7 June’, the date on which he received the letter, on the first page. Letters usually took only one day, occasionally two, between Berlin and Marburg.
I wish I had time … I haven’t: Tyndall’s hand is here a hasty scrawl; he wrote foreign words and names inaccurately.
I wrote to you: see letters 0485 and 0490 in which Tyndall gave Hirst instructions regarding money.
another letter from Edmondson: letter missing.
I have written to him: letter missing.
my paper: Tyndall alluded to his paper ‘On Diamagnetism and Magnecrystallic Action’ (cited letter 0498, n. 6).
a memoir from Bequerell: Edmond Becquerel, ‘De l’action du magnétisme sur tous les corps’ Annal. Chim. et Phys. s. 3, 32 (1851), pp. 68–112, which discusses Plücker, Faraday, and diamagnetism.
n’importe: it doesn’t matter.
Please cite as “Tyndall0493,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 7 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0493