My dear Tom,
I hope you will be well when this reaches you – your remarks concerning Wiedemann1 did not take me by surprise –they fulfil my own instinct regarding him. Right Tom2 to tell him your mind upon the matter and let the fellow feel that he has knocked against a man. I dont know how the memoirs stand but have written off today3 to enquire – I always calculated on Wiedemann and I fear Francis has done so too – If you have the half of it ready send it to me – it is perhaps as much as we shall require this time.
I cannot speak very definitely as to my prospects yet.4 I believe I might have 200 a year,5 an assistant laboratory and £50 yearly for experiments at the London Institution and should only have to deliver 7 lectures during the year. But Faraday I believe is anxious to have me at the Royal Institution – it was proposed to him that I should hold both professorships but he seems to think that one would interfere with the other but would have no objection to my holding a Lectureship at the London Institution in connexion with the professorship at the Royal.6 I dont think they will be able to offer me more than the London and the lectures instead of 7 will be 19. However even this is not much: and I shall probably close with the Royal. I have weighed the matter of your coming here – it is a near balance. On the whole I think you had better come for a year or two – I know your studies are not finished and I should like you to take a run over to Paris7 and spend a year or so there. I am commissioned to offer you £130 a year, they will make it 150 when the pupils number 70 – we have now 60.8 In making this arrangement £20 have been taken off the amount allowed to me and added to Debus’s salary. he will have 100. You will have about 3 hours a day and two lectures a week – no farmers.9 The practice will be of great value to you – it has been to me. If you could come some time in May all the better – it would help me amazingly and I should have the satisfaction of seeing everything settled before my departure. I write as if all were settled but there is nothing settled! Nevertheless I see no likelihood of my stopping here another half year. The Cambridge and Dublin Mathematical Journal10 you can have at £4 - 4 - 0. The usual price is £4 - 16 - 0.
I received a similar letter11 from Carter, and he sent me a paper yesterday. Hawkshaw12 the engineer is proposed as Fellow of the Royal Society this year. There is only one t in the 1st syllable of etiquette13 – nothing could express the exact relation of Carter to the ‘blessed truths’ better than what you have said. I was much amused by Dickinson’s scrap.14 Why does not the little fellow pay some attention to his spelling – he will find a want in this respect like a millstone round his neck in the world. Your improvement has been surprising. Post time draws near and I must close – I hope you stir up Herr Sauerbach15 now and then.
ever yours affectionately | John Tyndall
14th Apr. 1853
RI MS JT/1/T/885
RI MS JT/1/HTYP/237
your remarks concerning Wiedemann: letter missing or Hirst’s remarks were in the missing portions of letter 0742.
Right Tom: Tyndall wants Hirst to write to Wiedemann regarding the translation of his paper for the Scientif. Mem (see also letter 0745, n. 7).
the memoirs stand … written off today: Tyndall sent a letter to Francis discussing the organization of the Scientif. Mem. (see letter 0745).
I cannot … yet: this is a direct response to Hirst’s desire to know Tyndall’s decision on the professorship offers he had received (see letter 0742, n. 4).
200 a year: £200 per year salary.
But Faraday … at the Royal: see letters 0741 and 0744.
take a run over to Paris: Hirst would visit Paris in May (see letter 0759). Hirst left for Paris on Friday, 22 April, his birthday (Hirst, ‘Journals’, 24 April 1853)
I am commissioned … now 60: Tyndall is formally offering Hirst a position at Queenwood, first mentioned in letter 0739. Hirst eventually accepted the offer.
no farmers: Hirst was referring to Tyndall’s negative past experiences with farmers, as discussed in letters 0540, n. 3; 0597; 0639; and 0658, n. 3. In his journal entry of 12 December 1852, Tyndall mentioned that four students, who were studying to be farmers, were expelled for getting 14 or 15 boys drunk (JT/2/13b/592).
Cambridge and Dublin Mathematical Journal: see letter 0743, n. 2. Tyndall had enquired about the journal for Hirst.
a similar letter: Hirst recounts a letter from Carter in letter 0742.
Hawkshaw: John Hawkshaw (1811–91), a civil engineer who was elected FRS in June 1855.
only one t … etiquette: Tyndall was correcting a spelling mistake from the postscript of Hirst’s letter (see letter 0742).
Dickinson’s scrap: likely a reference to something written by Carl Dickinson on a ‘scrap’ of paper (now missing) that was enclosed with Hirst’s last letter.
Herr Sauerbach: see letter 0735, n. 4.
Please cite as “Tyndall0746,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on