Saturday night | 25th. March 1854.
My dear Ginty,
I suppose long before this the Insurance agents1 have received my answers to their questions. I made no delay in replying.
It is a selfish question to trouble you with on the eve of your departure2 – but could you contrive an experiment by which I could shew the manufacture of gas at the Royal Institution after Easter? If any thing strikes you which might be made use of as an instructive experiment I wish you would let me know.
I may possibly be down in Hampshire at the date of your departure and if so will give you my benediction before you sail. This is a strange world – I was astonished the other day when I had to say I knew you for upwards of 15 years – it seems like yesterday when I turn my eyes backward. Well thus far you have fought your way bravely through the world, and I hope you will return from your tropical sojourn with sufficient spoils to enable you to live without anxiety for the remainder of your days.
most faithfully yours | J. Tyndall.
RI MS JT/1/TYP/11/3641
LT Typescript Only
the Insurance agents: not identified.
your departure: William Gilbert Ginty, a civil engineer, had been selected to take on the role of general manager of the Imperial Gas Works in Rio de Janeiro (‘Mr. William Gilbert Ginty’, Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 27 [appendix to vol. 27] [1868], pp. 582–602, on pp. 589–90).
Please cite as “Tyndall0909,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on