Dear Dr Tyndall
I was glad to get your letter1 tho’ your answer did not quite tell me what I want to know. I had today another conversation with Mr Faraday; With the utmost desire that you should be at the R.I. It is not easy with many managers to get every thing done quickly.
He evidently does not like the two professorships & he will do every thing that he can do to make it possible for you to accept our professorship. If I knew what you could live in London for or (still better) on what terms you could accept our professorship, with liberty to take any course or courses of lectures elsewhere I think a proposal would soon be made to you.
All that would be asked for the largest stipend we could give would be one lecture a week during each division of the season. In all 19 lectures for this we agreed to pay 200gs2 might? be got with any sum for materials apparatus diagrams &c. that you pleased in reason £20 or 30 perhaps. You would have the laboratory to yourself to work in & Mr Anderson or some other assistant?
I have proposed to Mr Faraday an alteration in the Professors payment namely that the fees (whole or part?) should go to the lecturer & that the paid sum should be smaller. This may or may not be; & certainly cannot be settled quickly.
I mentioned the sum of 200 and a portion of the fees for the 19 lectures & he thought we should have difficulty in getting it & we should certainly unless he (Mr F) took a portion of his fees which he does not do.
The whole apparatus in the Institution & in Newmans shop3 is at the disposal of the Professors & any thing special is bought; Last year the Logeman exhibition magnet4 for Mr Fs experiments. I have no doubt Mr Gassiot is very anxious you should take his London professorship5 & it would not satisfy him that you should give a course of lectures only; at least I fear not. I will see what he says on Thursday, tho I feel it will not be what he wants.
Think over this question. On what terms can will you take our Professorship;6 to give 19 lectures (Holding any other lectureship but not Professorship)??
As soon as Mr Faraday can make a reasonable proposal he will attack the managers.7
I asked Mr Faraday if there was no one treasurer &c to whom he could speak about the arrangement. He said no. It was a question between science & money which no one could settle & so I fear it troubles you also but I have no doubt he will think over the best arrangement & if you will do the same I think an agreement may be found
If not you must accept the London Professorship & give us a course of lectures occasionally.
I have no other news to tell you except that I had a conversation with Grove about Du Bois8 & Matteucci9 He told me Matteucci had done more than Du Bois. I asked him how he knew that, had he read his book.10 No he could not read German. He had read the abstracts! & seen his experiments. I assured him 20 hours would not have enabled Du Bois to shew all he had done. This from Grove shows what some others also think or are led by him to think.
Ever yrs truly | H Bence Jones
April 11. 1853
RI MS JT/1/J/48
RI MS JT/1/TYP/678–679
your letter: letter missing.
200gs: 200 guineas.
Newmans shop: see letter 0717, n. 3.
Logeman exhibition magnet: Wilhelm Martin Logeman (1821–94) was a Dutch optician who displayed the three strongest magnets at the Great Exhibition of 1851. In 1850 he sent Faraday a magnet (see Faraday Correspondence, 4:2278).
London professorship: at the LI (see letters 0715 and 0717).
our Professorship: at the RI. It should be noted that ‘can’ was written above ‘will’ in this sentence.
the managers: the managers of the RI (see letter 0720, n. 1).
Du Bois: Emil du Bois-Reymond.
Du Bois & Matteucci: they were embroiled in a public conflict regarding their respective work on animal physiology (see letters 0724; 0730; 0732; and 0737).
his book: du Bois-Reymond’s book on animal electricity Untersuchungen Über Tierische Elektrizität, 2 vols (Berlin: G. Reimer, 1848; 1849).
Please cite as “Tyndall0744,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on