Queenwood monday –
My Dear Francis,
I send you two more testimonials one from Forbes2 the other from Sabine3 – the following note accompanied Sabine’s.
[…]4
Is it not kind? – I have written a reply to him5 in the spirit which his beautiful letter aroused. told him of my writing to Faraday and the result.6 Stated that though I should cheerfully go to Toronto if the honour of the lot fell upon me still I would willingly remain in my present position for a year or two, if a reasonable prospect awaited me of finding in these kingdoms the means of carrying on my investigations and of supplying my material wants.
I will send you either the whole or the greater part of my paper on bismuth polarity tomorrow.7
If Sir John Herschell’s Treatise on Light, or Faraday’s experimental researches on electricity, London 18398 should fall in your way second hand I should feel greatly obliged if you would purchase them for me.
Most faithfully yours, | Tyndall
I know that Herschell is to be had at Maynard’s Earl’s Court Leicester Sq.9 price [10/6] if I mistake it not.10
StBPL T&F, Authors’ letters
[29 September 1851]: the earliest possible Monday for this letter was 29 September 1851, for Tyndall had received a testimonial from Sabine posted on 27 September (letter 0535). Also, the allusion to his paper on bismuth (n. 8) indicates that this letter was written shortly before letter 0538, which was written on 30 September.
from Forbes: Forbes sent a testimonial with letter 0529 (which Tyndall received on 14 September). It is unusual for Tyndall to have been so slow forwarding a testimonial to Francis, but it was a modest testimonial. There are no extant letters from Tyndall to Francis between 13 September and this letter.
from Sabine: Sabine sent a testimonial with letter 0535.
Dear Sir … Sabine: Tyndall copied letter 0535 here. There are only minor differences in punctuation and capitalisation between the LT transcript (letter 0535) and the copy made by Tyndall; all such variations could be due to LT standardising punctuation in the typescript. For example, note that Tyndall uses Dr rather than Dear; from other letters we know that Sabine used such abbreviations.
written a reply to him: letter missing. The following account of the missing letter appears in similar words in letter 0540 to Hirst.
writing to Faraday and the result: see letters 0505 and 0506.
my paper on bismuth polarity: cited letter 0525, n. 2. The bulk of the paper was sent with letter 0538. The last few pages of the paper were sent with letter 0539.
Sir John Herschell’s … on electricity: Herschel’s treatise on light was originally a long essay within the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, vol. 4 (1827), pp. 341–586, and was republished in various collections in the following 20 years. Faraday, Experimental Researches on Electricity (London: Richard and John Edward Taylor, 1839), was the first of 3 volumes of reprints of journal articles by Faraday.
Maynard’s: Samuel Maynard, a bookseller who specialised in mathematical and philosophical books, traded at 8 Earl’s Court.
I know … it not: this postscript was written vertically down the left hand edge of the last page of the letter.
Please cite as “Tyndall0536,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 5 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0536