Queenwood 5th July 1852.
My Dear Tom,
Had you told me how matters stood with regard to Smith1 I should have managed the matter somehow; however the thing is now done and it is useless to talk further about it. I read your account of your successful attack upon your dissertation2 with great interest; it is strange how light dawns in upon a man and your recent experience confirms a theory of mine which I elaborated while in Berlin – that the mind of man is a Daguerreotype plate which intellectual effort goes to polish. Truth is not hid in a well as the ancients thought, it exists like sunbeams around us but owing to the rust of our mental Daguerreotype plate we are unable to take its impressions – this rust as I have said is removed bit by bit by intellectual effort and finally we get a polished surface impressible to the rays of knowledge.
Debus has posted your watch to Frankland who will soon set out for Germany and will deliver the article into your hands.3 I was very much interested by your account of Miss Simpson4 – If she executes her other little duties as earnestly and effectually as she does her dancing she is a very good girl.
I came from London yesterday having spent the last fortnight or better there – I went up for the purpose of going through the formalities of admission to the Royal Society;5 and while there, learned that the chair of Natural Philosophy in Queen’s College Galway6 was vacant. I have already commenced operations as a candidate – the formal application is not yet made for I received private intelligence of the matter7 before it was announced publically – I learn however that there is one of the ablest fellows in Trinity College Dublin8 in the field; so we are likely to have a hard fight for it – I have already brought some very heavy artillery to bear and am prepared for a sturdy conflict – Sanguine I am not, nor am I ever so, but I will do what I can notwithstanding.
I have written to Prof. Knoblauch to procure me a thermo-saüle9 and a number of cubes of crystals – these I should like to have as soon as possible and should therefore be glad if you would urge him a little – I do not know of course what the crystals will cost but should not mind going as far as 30 or 40 Thalers for them – Heinrich has written to you – he is working hard at his investigation which I calculate is much more rational than squandering his money in Germany.
Send me a copy of your Dissertation back by Frankland – I should very much like to see it. The R. S. has granted me £5010 and it is on the strength of this that I am purchasing the apparatus – I have invented a ducky little instrument for experiments on conduction,11 it is as pretty and as effectual a little affair as I have seen for some time. I look upon it with somewhat of the feelings of a father. Good bye boy – Wert thou near me I would kiss thee
affectionately | John
RI MS JT/1/T/552
how matters … Smith: concerning money for John Stores Smith; see letter 0634, n. 3.
your dissertation: see letter 0632.
into your hands: Hirst had left the watch in London (see letters 0633, n. 7 and 0634, n. 4).
Miss Simpson: Anna Martin, Hirst’s future wife. Hirst had praised her dancing in letter 0634 (see also letter 0632).
admission to the Royal Society: Tyndall recalled in his journal for 17 June 1850, ‘I met Huxley whom I arranged to meet at the Royal at 3,25. Both of us were punctual to the minute; sat together near the President and at the proper time was introduced by Huxley; The President repeated a certain formula which declared my admission as Fellow, at the end of which we shook hands and the matter was complete’ (JT/2/13b/570).
chair … Galway: see letter 0636, n. 3 and 0637, n. 2.
private intelligence of the matter: very likely from Edmund Ronalds, via Francis. Ronalds had previously fed information on the Cork position (letter 0551); Tyndall later asked Francis to thank Ronalds in the context of discussing the Galway position (letter 0664); and Francis and Ronalds had known each other as far back as 1841–42 when both were at Giessen under Liebig.
one of the ablest fellows in Trinity College Dublin: George Johnstone Stoney, who eventually received the position.
thermo-saüle: spelled thermosäule, alternately called a thermopile: an electronic device that converts thermal energy into electrical energy. It was developed in 1823 by Hans Christian Ørstead (1777–1851) and Joseph Fourier (1768–1830). More than urge Knoblauch, Hirst liaised with Kleiner, the instrument maker, on Tyndall’s behalf and, in December, organized the delivery of the instrument (see letters 0689 and 0695).
The R. S. has granted me £50: Tyndall had applied for the grant at the insistence of Sabine (see letters 0613 and 0625).
ducky little instrument for experiments on conduction: as Tyndall was at this time beginning his investigations into the conduction of heat by organic structures (particularly numerous cubes made of different types of wood), this instrument is certainly the one described in his report of these investigations in the Phil. Trans. (cited letter 0606, n. 1) and the Phil. Mag. ( J. Tyndall, ‘On Molecular Influences – Part 1. Transmission of Heat Through Organic Structures’, Phil. Mag., 6:37 (August, 1853), pp. 121–38). A figure of the instrument appears on p. 219 of the former and p. 124 of the latter.
Please cite as “Tyndall0638,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 5 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0638