Queenwood Saturday
My Dear Francis,
I was very glad to hear from you,2 as I did not know but you had fallen in love, got swamped in the billows at Whitby, or done something else equally impudent with yourself but equally effective in introducing silence upon you. Accompanying this goes the one half of Beer’s paper,3 and the other half shall be in Red Lion Court almost by the time this reaches you. With regard to my own little paper4 my object was to pack it off to Toronto along with the others and thus render the packet weightier. But if you find the slightest difficulty in making room for it by all manner of means exclude it – nay I should prefer this decision on your part for I could then make the matter much more perfect for the November number and you would perhaps be able to let me have a copy in time to send it off with the rest, as the Bursar’s office is open to applications to the 19th Nov. Even here I would not press you, as it is almost a matter of indifference to me whether I send it at all or not. Now the case rests thus. If through my application you have been induced to make arrangements for the printing of the paper which you would find it inconvenient to alter then I will have it ready for you. If not then let it stand over until a more convenient season. I see the subject is fruitful and will give rise to many interesting speculations which are worth following up a little. Thomson wrote to me this morning and sent me a great number of papers,5 among others his theory of magnetism. This is the most valuable part of his message to me. His testimonial is a closely clipped statement of facts – Joule’s6 is far better. I wrote to Airy and received the following reply.7
‘It would give me pleasure to assist you in reference to the Toronto professorship if it were in my power to do so. Whether I can have the opportunity of doing it is not quite certain.
As a servant of the Government I am hardly competent to offer8 them a certificate in a matter which is not related to my own profession. But I am prepared to respond to any enquiry which the government may address to me.
You are therefore at liberty to refer the government to me; and I shall be happy if this gives me an opportunity of expressing the favourable opinion which I entertain of your qualification for the office.’ –
The matter however appears to be in the hands of the colonial government as I am not aware that the government at home takes an interest in the matter.
As yet I have received no reply from Whewell,9 Grove,10 Sabine11 or Forbes.12 I wrote to Liebig13 also but I believe he has gone to Ireland with Reusch Rose & Magnus. I had Knoblauch down with me a few days ago. I trust he will be able to see you before he leaves this country.
with best wishes dear Francis | most faithfully yours | J Tyndall –
This morning a testimonial from Dove reached me14 – I have a strong array from Germany but am as yet weak in England. This I hope to overcome in time, and one practical mode of overcoming it is the following up of your suggestion of coming to town now and then This I intend to do. | J.T.15
StBPL T&F, Authors’ letters
[13 September 1851]: in this letter Tyndall thanked Francis for his letter, mentioned receiving Thomson’s testimonial that morning and, in the postscript, mentioned receiving Dove’s testimonial, also that morning. According to his journal these were all received on Saturday 13 September (JT/2/13b/549-50). Also, at the time of writing this letter he had not received Forbes’s testimonial which, according to his journal, was received on 14 September (JT/2/13b/550). But, according to the same journal entry he wrote to Francis and sent half of Beer’s paper that day. Rather than question the 13 September date, we assume Tyndall sent a second, missing letter with the second half of Beer’s paper on 14 September.
glad to hear from you: letter missing, but Tyndall recorded receiving a letter from Francis on 13 September (Journal, ibid.).
Beer’s paper: Beer, ‘On the deduction of Fresnel’s construction from the formulæ of Cauchy for the Motion of Light’, Phil. Mag., 2:11 (October 1851), pp. 297–303.
my own little paper: of 10–12 pages, see letter 0525, n. 2.
Thomson ... papers: see letter 0528.
Joule’s: see letter 0524.
I wrote to Airy ... reply: see letters 0518 and 0527. Tyndall quotes accurately from letter 0527, with only punctuation and capitalization differences.
offer: at this point there is a page break and the two parts of the letter are separated in the Taylor and Francis archive.
Whewell: request to Whewell is missing; for Whewell’s reply see letter 0542.
Grove: request to Grove is missing; Grove eventually replied in letter 0547.
Sabine: request to Sabine is missing; Sabine replied in letter 0535.
Forbes: Forbes sent a testimonial with a letter written 12 September (0529). According to Tyndall’s Journal (JT/2/13b/550), he received this letter on 14 September, that is, the day after writing this letter.
I wrote to Liebig: letter missing; it is not alluded to in other letters.
testimonial from Dove reached me: letter missing, but Tyndall recorded receiving it on 13 September (Journal, JT/2/13b/550).
This morning … J.T.: the entire postscript is written vertically across the second page of the letter.
Please cite as “Tyndall0530,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 5 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0530