7th Nov. 1853.
My dear Tom.
I have sent a copy of your lecture1 to Lyon Playfair. By degrees I shall distribute them all, just as occasion offers, it is better to seize the occasion than to appear to thrust them on people’s attention. With regard the the medal2 I told you all I knew, I have as yet received no official intimation of the thing, nor will the medal be given till the 30th of this month. It is the Royal medal,3 in reality two medals, one of gold and the other of silver, value 50 pounds. This is all I know about it. The investigation you enquire about is one on the vibrations produced by heated metals, and the man from whom I diverge is Prof. Forbes of Edinburg – He has written a long paper on the subject, and written very confidently, stating certain general laws from which he draws important conclusions – These general laws it has been my fate to annihilate utterly, I have besides expanded the subject far beyond the limits hitherto assigned to it.4 It will form a beautiful Friday evening lecture,5 and will also I trust furnish materials for a pretty paper in the Philosophical Transactions.6 I went to see Dr. Simpson’s family7 yesterday. We had no tea but an hour’s pleasant conversation – which Mrs. Simpson kept wholly directed upon herself and your daughter8 sat on the sofa rather behind and said almost nothing – I like her notwithstanding, just as well as if she had talked more, for the little she did say was quite to the purpose. I said once that you were my son and that the logical conclusion was that I am her grand papa. I think I will call upon them tomorrow again – they leave town on Wednesday. They would have been very glad to see you I have no doubt, we talked a good deal about you and Simpson has a certain theory regarding your passive submission to adverse circumstances which amused me a little. Ginty is wrong in saying that I am growing morose. I myself testify to the contrary and I know better than Ginty. I take no pains to explain to Ginty the foundations of my actions – he sees their surface only and draws foolish conclusions from them. I ought to have told you that Dove got the Copley medal9 – I am sincerely glad of it for I know it will greatly gratify a very worthy fellow. I believe the Royal and the Copley are the only two that have been awarded this year.
<Hereafter LT Transcript Only>
11th. Nov10
The other leaf has been written sometime. I intended to write more to you to explode that philosophy which you call strange and yet true11 – but I forbear for the present.
Playfair I learned yesterday is going down to Salisbury12 on a visit I will write a note to him today recommending him to pay Queenwood a visit.
I send you a note I got from Gassiot13 a day or two ago and another from Col. Sabine.14 Send me both again.
Your affectionate | John.
RI MS JT/1/T/577
RI MS JT/1/HTYP/282
your lecture: see letters 0808, n. 2 and 0810, n. 1.
the medal: the Royal Medal (see letter 0815, n. 3).
the Royal medal: Hirst had asked Tyndall if he was to receive the Copley medal (see letter 0819, n. 6).
The investigation … assigned to it: see letters 0814, n. 7 and 0819, n. 20.
Friday evening lecture: ‘On the vibration and tones produced by the contact of bodies having different temperatures’, Roy. Inst. Proc., vol. 1, 356–9.
pretty paper in the Philosophical Transactions: J. Tyndall, ‘On the Vibrations and Tones produced by the Contact of Bodies having different Temperatures’, Phil. Trans. 144 (1854), pp. 1–10.
Dr. Simpson’s family: see letter 0819, nn. 2–4.
your daughter: Anna Martin (see letter 0816, n. 11).
the Copley medal: see n. 3 and letter 0820, n. 18.
11th. Nov: This addendum appears to have been sent together with the letter written 7 November.
that philosophy … true: in response to a comment that Tyndall made to Hirst about the scanty letters he had been receiving (see letter 0814), Hirst responded with an explanation in letter 0819.
Salisbury: a city located in Wiltshire, England about 13 miles from Queenwood.
a note I got from Gassiot: see letter 0821.
another from Col. Sabine: see letter 0822.
Please cite as “Tyndall0825,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on