22nd June 1853
My dear Francis
I am heartily tired of Reuben1 and his set. He ought to have finished with it long ago. Or he ought not to have published anything about it until he had made up his mind as to what he ought to say. No reader of the Phil. Mag. will be glad on opening it to see a long article from Reuben upon this subject. Even had he important results to communicate I would recommend him to let them rest for a couple of years for really people have enough of the steam jet2 for the present. In the regard to the sounds I hardly know what to say. I cannot recommend the publication of the paper.3 There is nothing in them in common with the musical tones which de la Rive and others have found to be produced by magnetism and I am inclined to think that they present neither difficulty nor interest in a scientific point of view.
Reuben I fear does not pursue science for the mere love of it. He likes to see himself in print and he talks sometimes about things which he had far better let alone. It would be refreshing to see him fixing his eye steadily on one object and prosecuting that and to avoid thrusting in remarks here and there which to my notion appears intended to shew his readers how much he has read. I dislike this mode of writing exceedingly.
Previous to deciding on translating Schwerd4 I had spoken to Baden Powell5 and written to Stokes6 and was informed by both that they never had met an English translation of the work.7 This of the very highest repute in Germany and I sometimes meet a remark, in the Giessen Jahres Bericht8 for instance that Schwerds investigation appears not to be well known in England – under these circumstances I thought the work a valuable contribution to English science and ignorant as I was of the cost of engraving, the plates did not strike me as an obstacle. If a sufficient number of subscribers could be found to pay for the translation it would be worth while to publish the work in an isolated form; however for the present I suppose it must drop9 as I should feel reluctant to cut away the plates. I was anxious to set off to Paris and hoped that my work was nearly ended but I must endeavour to summon up strength to commence it anew.
This circumstance induces me to mention a subject at present which I intended to defer till the present part of the Memoirs10 should be completed. In our conversation about the Memoirs we spoke if you remember of giving them a year’s trial.11 The present number12 will complete the year. These papers are certainly of great value to English science and hence any man interested in its progress might be glad to engage in them, but it is a dreadful draw upon the time of a man like myself. Had I not private investigations in hand the work would be agreeable enough but I cannot repress the conviction that I should render science a greater service in working myself than in merely translating the work of others – translators are easily found and to such the work ought to be entrusted. This quarterly draw upon my time is like a millstone round my neck. Now I should be sorry to see the Memoirs discontinued and I should be most willing to recommend papers for translation and to inspect the translations but to continue furnishing such a large quota as I have hitherto done is more than I can promise. I look with a certain dismay at the mass of work now before me. I shall set about something immediately but after the present number some new arrangement must be contrived.
I think it best that perfect frankness should subsist between us and therefore I have written exactly as I have felt. The Memoirs at present are a dead weight upon me, dividing my thoughts and damping whatever little energies I possess. The idea of having to commence again may perhaps have some influence on my feelings at present but their pressure has been felt for a long time and I must contrive to get it lightened.
ever yours sincerely | John Tyndall
Those Reports13 that used to appear in the Magazine are to my mind of the highest value. They require the brain of a man of Science and they furnish worthy occupation for him – but from these this translating which might be done by hundreds cuts me away effectually.
Have you got the Bulletin de la Classe Physics mathematique a l’academie de St. Petersburg?14 In vol. IX p. 28915 begins a memoir which I think would make a capital paper for the Memoirs. A translation of it appears in Krönigs journal vol. III. page 377.16 but this I suppose you do not receive.
RDS 27/33
Reuben: Reuben Phillips (nd) was an English physicist who worked mostly on atmospheric electricity (‘Preface’, On Atmospheric Electricity [London: Robert Hardwicke, 1863], pp. i–iii). Tyndall was not impressed by Phillips (see, for instance, letter 0569, n. 6).
steam jet: see R. Phillips ‘On the Electrical Condition of the Atmosphere’, Phil. Mag. 4:23 (August 1852), pp. 126–9; R. Clausius ‘On the Colours of a Jet of Steam and of the Atmosphere’, Phil. Mag. 4:27 (December 1852), pp. 416–7; and Phillips, ‘On the Colours of a Jet of Steam and of the Atmosphere’, Phil. Mag. 5:29 (January 1853), pp. 28–30.
the paper: not identified but see n. 2.
translating Schwerd: see letters 0767 and 0768.
spoken to Baden Powell: in a previous letter to Francis (letter 0763) Tyndall mentioned that he would write to Baden Powell to ask if Schwerd’s manuscript had appeared in English translation.
written to Stokes: see letter 0768. Note that Stokes’s reply is missing.
the work: see letter 0768, n. 1.
Giessen Jahres Bericht: refers to the annual report coming out of Giessen, a town 20 miles southwest of Marburg, Germany (H. Buff, E. Dieffenbach, C. Ettling, F. Knapp, H. Will, and F. Zamminer (eds), Jahresbericht über die Fortschritte der reinen, pharmaceutischen und technischen Chemie, Physik, Mineralogie und Geologie, 8 vols (Giessen: J. Ricker, 1849–57), vols. 1850–52).
must drop: see n. 7.
Memoirs: see letter 0698, n. 8.
year’s trial: see letter 0472.
present number: Tyndall and Francis (eds.), Scientif. Mem., vol. 1, part 4.
Those Reports: These are the ‘Reports on the progress of the physical sciences’ that Tyndall wrote for the Phil. Mag. beginning in 1851. See Volume 3, especially the ‘Introduction’.
Bulletin … St. Petersburg?: The Bulletin de la Class Physico-mathématique de l’Académie Impériale des Sciences de Saint-Pétersbourg was a scientific journal published by the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg from 1843 to 1859.
In vol. IX p. 289: M. Jacobi, ‘Sur la théorie des machines électromagnétiques’, Bulletin de la Class Physico-mathématique de l’Académie Impériale des Sciences de Saint–Pétersbourg 9:211/212 (1851), pp. 289–310. Moritz Hermann von Jacobi (1801–1874), German engineer and physicist after whom Jacobi’s Law is named; he was the brother of mathematician Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi.
A translation … page 377: It was translated from French to German (M. Jacobi, ‘Ueber die Theorie der elecktromanetischen Maschinen’, Journal für Physik und Physikalische Chemie des Auslandes in Vollstaendign Uebersetzungen 4:31 [1851], pp. 377–408).
Please cite as “Tyndall0771,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on