My dear Dr Tyndall
The managers met today1 and I am requested to communicate to you officially, that in consequence of a recommendation from Mr. Faraday the managers are desirous of proposing you for election as Professor of Natural Philosophy with £200 a year. Your duties are defined in the bye law which I have marked.2
I am requested to report to the managers at their next meeting3 your answer to this proposal.
Will you in the course of the next few weeks send me a short & sweet letter4 or empower me to state in answer to them what I said today you had answered to me. Do this as you please.
I think you can be elected in July5 & the £200 will commence from that time whether you begin to work at the RI or not. You are free to lecture anywhere but only to be Professor of the R. Institution. The £200 may & will be increased in a year & there is no reason why after a time you should not have £400 (or more) if you devote yourself to R.I. Davy had; & Mr. Faraday has quoted him as a precedent for this proceeding.
We had a very full meeting & all were for you & some for offering you more at first & all thought it poor pay.
Mr Gassiott spoke highly of you & of your letter6 asking to be free to accept an offer from the RI You can see some day on the minutes what Mr. Faraday said.7
Your lecture of Saturday8 was highly approved | I must end.
We do not meet until the end of June
Believe me | Yours very truly | H Bence Jones
May 23. 1853.
RI MS JT/1/J/51
RI MS JT/1/TYP/682
Managers met today: see letter 0756, n. 1. At the 23 May 1853 RI Managers’ Meeting, Faraday recommended offering Tyndall a professorship there stating that Tyndall ‘has been an original and successful investigator of different departments of physical science; – that he has written several papers on research highly acceptable to philosophers; – that he is a good German and French Scholar, having thus free access to the science of the Continent; and is one of the Editors of the ‘Scientific Memoirs’ (Minutes of the Managers’ Meeting, RI MS AD/02/B/02/A/11/13–14).
I have marked: document missing.
next meeting: the next Managers Meeting was 6 June (Minutes of the Managers’ Meeting, RI MS AD/02/B/02/A/11/15–21).
sweet letter: letter 0765.
elected in July: ‘General Monthly Meeting, Monday, July 4’, Roy. Inst. Proc., vol. 1, pp. 339–40.
your letter: letter missing.
what Mr. Faraday said: see n. 1.
Your lecture of Saturday: Tyndall lectured at the RI on 21 May (see letter 0761, nn. 1 and 2).
Please cite as “Tyndall0762,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on