To Michael Faraday   July 28th

July 28th.

Dear Professor Faraday

DuBois¹ starts for England tomorrow and will carry this to Hull.² He came to me the evening before last with a countenance shining with pleasure, ‘You would not guess what I have got’ he exclaimed. I paused – one hypothesis alone seemed opened to me – ‘You have got a letter from Ambleside’³ I replied. ‘No’ said he ‘I have got a letter for you’ – He opened his pocket book and handed me a letter bearing a superscription well known to both of us – the letter⁴ in fact was yours.

Would that my wish and the wish of many able, honest and hospitable men added to my own could be effected in transporting you at a safe speed to Berlin. From one end of Germany to the other there is but one feeling towards you – a feeling which I believe it has never before been the lot of a man of science to excite: it will be a pity if you cannot afford time for a single visit to a country which I believe above all others pays you a noble reverence – You have visited France and Italy – establish the equilibrium of things by a visit to Germany. Whenever you make up your mind I offer my services as a guide. Mrs Faraday may rest assured that I will take great care of you – my greatest difficulty would be to preserve you from the loyalty of your clansmen, but even this I would undertake to manage.

I mentioned in my last letter⁵ that I intended to try Trevelyan’s experiment⁶ with a new metallic body. I was led to choose quartz from the extraordinary conductive power which my last experiment proved it to possess. With the first crystal I had cut a permanent oscillation was obtained but no tone. With a second crystal cut somewhat differently I have obtained a distinct tone, sufficiently loud I think to be heard throughout the theatre when everything is perfectly quiet. I have failed to obtain vibrations with a piece of glass cut similarly to the quartz, this might have been anticipated. On the whole I think the matter might be worked up into a suitable Friday evening’s lecture.⁷

I cannot resist the temptation to send you a note⁸ which I received from a little friend of mine just before leaving England – a beautiful childlike little boy⁹ about 10 years old. He was with me at Queenwood. His cousin Elma and cousin Grace¹⁰ are strangers to me but he tells me all about them with the most perfect good faith that it will interest me. I should not venture to send you the note had not somebody told me that you could afford to play with little boys.

Believe me dear Prof Faraday | Most truly Yours | John Tyndall

Universitäts Strasse 4 | Berlin

RI MS JT/TYP/12/4023

Faraday Correspondence, 4:2707