Ardmillan | Sep 41
Queenwood College | near Stockbridge | Hampshire | September 1 / 51
Dear Sir,
You are already aware of my intention to become a Candidate for the professorship of Natural Philosophy in the University of Toronto, and my friend Dr. Francis has already informed me of the kind readiness with which you promised to support me – There are few indeed whose testimony on my behalf will be so gratifying to me as your own for I believe no Physicist of our day has penetrated the theoretic Mysteries of the subjects which have chiefly engrossed my attention so far as yourself.
I send you a copy of my last investigation which was made in Berlin and read before the Physical Section of the British Association at Ipswich.2 I regretted your absence on the occasion very much – the paper I confess was in some measure framed with a view of meeting an anticipated onset on your part. I expect to have a short paper on diamagnetism ready for the October number of the Phil. Mag.3 It is with some reluctance that I publish it so soon, but I am anxious to send it to Toronto with my other memoirs and therefore cannot delay its publication beyond the 1st of next month.
I have not yet had the pleasure of seeing the number of Philosophical Transactions which contains your Theory of Magnetism.4 I heard of the investigation first in Berlin and afterwards in the address of Prof. Airey at Ipswich.5 I shall endeavour to get into it if possible, though want of practice has rendered me rather rusty at the calculus.6 I commenced Poisson’s theory7 6 or 8 months ago, but never got through it; he writes with wonderful precision it is true, but he leaves many steps undeveloped. This made my reading so slow that I was forced to give it up for want of time.
It is hardly necessary to mention further the more specific object of this letter, but I shall consider it a very great favour if you would have the kindness to send me a testimonial.8
with best wishes | I am dear Sir | most faithfully Yours | John Tyndall.
Prof. Thomson | &c. &c.
RI MS JT/1/TYP/5/1530–1531
Transcription Only
Ardmillan | Sep 4: Thomson was not at home when the letter arrived and it was forwarded on to him (see his reply (letter 0528)). ‘Ardmillan | Sep 4’, added at the top of the letter, indicates the place and date of Thomson’s receiving the letter. He probably refers to Ardmillan House, on the estate of the lawyer, James Crauford (later Lord Ardmillan). The estate was near the coast a few miles south of Girvan in Ayrshire.
read . . . at Ipswich: Tyndall, ‘On Diamagnetism and Magnecrystallic Action’, just published in full in the Phil. Mag. (letters 0501, n. 3 and 0498, n. 6).
short paper ... Phil. Mag: the paper was published in November (see letter 0525, n. 2); thus Tyndall did not get it published as soon as he wished.
your Theory of Magnetism: Thomson, ‘A Mathematical Theory of Magnetism’ and ‘A Mathematical Theory of Magnetism. Continuation of Part I’ (read on 21 June 1849 and 20 June 1850), Phil. Trans., 141 (1851), pp. 243–68, 269–85.
address of Prof. Airey: Airy’s presidential address to the BAAS delivered at Ipswich and published in the Brit. Assoc. Rep. 1851, pp. xxxix-liii. The address, which surveyed scientific progress over the preceding year, referred to Thomson: ‘The first part of an elaborate mathematical theory of Magnetism, by Prof. Thomson, has been published’ (p. xlv).
rather rusty at the calculus: Tyndall did not have the mathematical facility of Thomson (who had a mathematician father and had graduated second wrangler from Cambridge). Oliver Lodge later criticized Tyndall’s mathematics: ‘he certainly learned some mathematics … but he had not the genuine mathematical instinct’ and elaborated on this weakness in his Encyclopaedia Britannica article’ (‘Tyndall, John’, Enc. Brit., 10th edn, vol. XXXIII, 1902). Ascribing Tyndall’s mathematical limitations to innate incapacity rather than to education is a Victorian interpretation.
commenced Poisson’s theory: Simon Denis Poisson (1781–1840) was a brilliant French mathematician who applied mathematics to many branches of physics including electricity and magnetism. Thomson had mentioned Poisson’s theory of magnetism in discussion at the Edinburgh BAAS meeting (1850). Tyndall had asked Thomson for references (letters 0422) and Thomson responded (letter 0425) in August. It is not clear precisely what Tyndall was reading, but see Thomson’s letter for his recommendations.
send me a testimonial: Thomson sent a testimonial with letter 0528.
Please cite as “Tyndall0519,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0519