21st Sept. 1852
My dear Francis.
In all my life I never had such a mass of work before me1 – Some days ago I dreaded breaking down but the Gods are good to me and my brain holds out amazingly – It appears as if a little vigour was lent me to cope with the task before me. I promised to have my own paper2 sent in to the Royal early in October. My experiments are finished thank heaven but then the writing is to come. I have laid hold of Clausius3 and shall have it with you by the end of the month.4 by the 15th of Oct. you shall Helmholtz über die Erhatung der Kraft.5 He and Clausius must go together.6 And then there is the farmers and the boys and the lectures,7 and Lovell Reeve8 which I have just finished – I will say a word or two to you tomorrow about Reuben Phillips9 – I am delighted to hear of Mr Taylor’s improvement10 – Now that you have him safe and sound you must take good care of him and keep all vexatious matters far away from him. It must be a bright and gladdening thought to you & Miss Taylor11 – for indeed it is to me – to see him rescued from such a melancholy fate and set once more erect in the enjoyment of his faculties. I have examined Quetelet root and branch12 – he is all right – Remember me most kindly to Ronalds when you see him. I owe him a great deal13 –
Yours as ever | Tyndall
StBPL T&F, Authors’ letters
mass of work before me: Tyndall was busy with translations for the Scientific Memoirs and preparing his own paper for the Royal Society in October. See Journal, 19 September 1852 (JT/2/13b/585).
my own paper: see letter 0606, n. 1. The manuscript was sent to Sabine before 6 October (Journal, JT/2/13b/585).
Clausius: two papers by Clausius were published in the first two parts of the Scientific Memoirs. The first, R. Clausius, ‘Ueber das mechanische Aequivalent einer elektrischen Entladung und die dabei stattfindende Erwärmung des Leitungsdrahtes’, Poggend. Annal., 86:7 (1852), pp. 337–75, was translated as R. Clausius, ‘On the Mechanical Equivalent of an Electric Discharge, and the Heating of the Conducting Wire which accompanies it’, in J. Tyndall and W. Francis (eds.), Scientific Memoirs (London: Taylor and Francis, 1853), pp. 1–32. This paper appeared in Part I. The second, R. Clausius, ‘Ueber die bei einem stationären elektrischen Strome in dem Leiter gethane Arbeit und erzeugte Wärme’, Poggend. Annal., 87:11 (1852), pp. 415–26, was translated as R. Clausius, ‘On the Work performed and the Heat generated in a Conductor by a Stationary Electric Current’, in ibid, pp. 200–9. This paper was split over Parts II and III. It is unclear to which paper Tyndall alludes here (and in later letters), although the request that it be published alongside the paper by Helmholtz suggests that he alludes to the second paper.
Clausius … end of the month: Tyndall sent the translation to Francis before 6 October (Journal, JT/2/13b/585).
Helmholtz … der Kraft: H. Helmholtz, Über die Erhaltung der Kraft, read before the Physical Society of Berlin on 23 July 1847 and later published (Berlin: Reimer, 1847). The translation was published as H. Helmholtz, ‘On the Conservation of Force’, in J. Tyndall and W. Francis (eds.), Scientific Memoirs (London: Taylor and Francis, 1853), pp. 114–62.
He and Clausius … together: the first Clausius paper was published in the first number, Helmholtz was published in the second number along with the start of the second Clausius paper, the remainder of which appeared in the third number.
farmers and the boys and the lectures: his work at Queenwood.
Lovell Reeve: Reeve (1814–65) was an English conchologist and editor of the Literary Gazette from 1850–6. The text to which Tyndall alludes has not been identified.
word or two to you tomorrow about Reuben Phillips: letter, if written, is missing. Tyndall probably alludes to a paper by Phillips that appeared in the January number of the Phil. Mag. (see letters 0666 and 0684, n. 7).
Mr Taylor’s improvement: as Taylor’s health declined, he entered into partnership with William Francis, co-founding the Taylor & Francis Publishing House in May, 1852. At that time, Richard Taylor’s brothers, John and Edward, attempted to prove Richard mad in order to have Francis and Richard’s partnership declared null. In June, he had been committed to a private asylum in Sydenham. This is the first of several allusions to Taylor’s ill health and family bickering. (See Brock and Meadows, Lamp of Learning, pp. 132–4.)
Miss Taylor: Sarah Taylor (1808–84), Richard Taylor’s legitimate daughter and half-sister of William Francis.
Quetelet root and branch: not identified, but probably having to do with the French statistician Adolphe Quetelet’s publications in the October issue of the Phil. Mag. (‘On Atmospheric Electricity, according to the Observations at Munich and Brussels’, and ‘On the State of Static and of Dynamic Electricity during several heavy Showers observed at Brussels on the 14th of June 1852’, Phil. Mag., 4:25 (October 1852), pp. 249–52 and 253–6.)
I owe him a great deal: Ronalds’s had passed on news to Francis about the Cork position in 1851(see letter 0551 and 0654, n. 1 for indications of his involvement); he may also have been the source of the early news about the Galway position (see letter 0638).
Please cite as “Tyndall0664,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 3 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0664