April 15th 1853.
Dear Dr Tyndall
I have so much to say that I do not know how to begin. Thanks for your note2 of this morning, I thought the best plan was to put all your letters before Mr Faraday. And the result of this and a conversation with Mr Barlow is this. That Mr Faraday will at the May meeting of the Managers write them a note advising them to appoint you Professor of Physics with 2003 you giving, in two courses a lecture each week during the season and Mr Faraday implied he should also probably alternate years (if not all) ask you to give the juvenile course,4 which is 6 lectures for £50. The other duties of a Professor we read over and I answered that there was nothing you would object to, (about care of instruments and doing what you were asked)
Mr F. has been thinking over the possibility of your having rooms5 but he sees no way whilst he remains.
All this must be a matter of private arrangement until this May meeting6 is over and then you can not be elected Professor, for by the laws you must be proposed in April, having given a course of lectures previously. So that the election must be put off until next year. The Managers however, or Mr Faraday’s note, will determine the salary which will commence – when? This partly must depend on your convenience. Let me know your position in this respect. The first duty will be in Jan. 1854. and until you hear the result of the proposal to the Managers you ought not to give up your present duty. I say this not that I doubt Mr Faraday’s omnipotence but that accidents will happen, tho’ unforeseen. Mr Gassiott7 I had only a few words with but you are free evidently and he has told you so.
Mr Barlow, I found quite agreeable this morning. And [if] you tell me about times I will see that Mr Faraday writes to you or you to him.
Yours ever | H. Bence Jones.
RI MS JT/1/HTYP/239
LT Typescript Only
From Bence Jones: LT noted: ‘original [put] with Bence Jones’.
your note: letter missing.
with 200: see letter 0744.
the juvenile course: since 1825, the RI ran lectures during the school holiday between Christmas and into the New Year that were aimed at a ‘juvenile auditory’ in order to introduce youths to a scientific subject through spectacular demonstrations (‘Christmas Lectures Founded’, at http://www.rigb.org/christmas-lectures/history [accessed 14 August 2015]).
having rooms: Faraday lived at the RI.
May meeting: see letter 0732, n. 2. The meeting was held on 2 May (‘Annual Meeting’, Roy. Inst. Proc., vol. 1, p. 309).
Mr Gassiott: Tyndall was also negotiating with Gassiot about a position at the LI (see letter 0744, n. 5).
Please cite as “Tyndall0747,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on