20th Jan. 1855
My dear Frankland
I ought to have written to you two days ago – but I have been so hard pushed at the commencement of our session that I have deferred writing till the close of the week –Tuesday last1 my lectures commenced – Tuesday next of course I have another – Thursday I am to give the Bakerian Lecture at the Royal Society2 – on the following evening (Friday) I am to give a lecture at the Royal Institution3 so that a load of work is crammed into the commencement of the year.
I purchased Duboscq’s lamp4 in Liverpool for Dr Bence Jones. I have worked some with it and found it a beautiful instrument – I have heard it complained of as being complicated and liable to be deranged, but as yet I have met no obstacle in the use of it. The cost of the lamp alone is 200 francs5 – other appurtenances for optical experiments make it a dear piece of apparatus – I am not acquainted with the merits of the lamp to which you allude. I saw one of them at the great Exhibition in 1851,6 but did not examine it minutely – It is said that a Dr Watson has invented a much simpler lamp7 than that of Duboscq but I have never seen the instrument. The light continues as long as the coal points continue – it could readily be kept constant for half an hour or more. The points are of retort charcoal – cut into thin prisms – were the lamp my own I would offer you the use of it for the occasion but I have no right to it whatever – nor has the Institution.
I hope you will be successful in your efforts for Miss Ballin8 – she has a good friend in the lady with whom she is at present staying.9
Kind remembrance to Mrs Frankland | & Believe me | Most faithfully yours | John Tyndall
Faraday gave us a remarkable lecture last night10 – poor man he was greatly smitten down by the death of a friend11 which had occurred during the day, but he managed to speak in the extraordinary vigour notwithstanding.
JRL Frankland, 190
Tuesday last: 16 January; see letter 1028, n. 13.
the Bakerian Lecture at the Royal Society: The Bakerian Lectures were established in 1775 through a bequest of Henry Baker (1698–1774) to the RS. Each year a lecturer was chosen to deliver a lecture on a topic in the physical sciences. Tyndall’s lecture was due to be delivered on 18 January 1855 (see minutes of RS Council meeting on 14 December 1854, RS CMO/13) but was instead given on 25 January; see letter 1029, n. 1 for title and publication details.
a lecture at the Royal Institution: On January 26 Tyndall delivered a Friday Evening Discourse at the RI entitled ‘On the Nature of the Force by which Bodies are Repelled from the Poles of a Magnet’, which was subsequently published in Roy. Inst. Proc., 2 (1854–8), pp. 13–17.
Duboscq’s lamp: a self-regulating arc lamp developed by César Duboscq in 1851.
200 francs: approximately £8.
I saw one of them at the great Exhibition in 1851: For Duboscq’s exhibits (France, 1197), see Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue of the Great Exhibition of the Works of All Nations, 3 vols (London: Spicer Bros, 1851), vol. 3, p. 1235.
Dr Watson has invented a much simpler lamp: Joseph John William Watson (c. 1831– 86), described as a ‘civil engineer’ in the 1871 census (Ancestry), was the author of A Few Remarks on the Present State and Prospects of Electrical Illumination ... With a Description of the Author’s Patented Inventions in Galvanic Batteries and Electric Lamps (London: Saunders & Stanford, 1853).
Miss Ballin: see letter 1026, n. 1.
the lady with whom she is at present staying: Jemima Hornblower; see letter 1026, n. 3.
a remarkable lecture last night: Faraday’s Friday evening discourse on 19 January was entitled ‘On Some Points of Magnetic Philosophy’, which was subsequently printed in Roy. Inst. Proc., 2 (1854–8), pp. 6–13.
the death of a friend: In his Journal entry for 19 January (RI MS JT/2/13b/715) Tyndall noted that Faraday ‘was smitten down by the death of some of his friends but spoke with uncommon vigour notwithstanding’, which suggests that more than one of his friends had recently died. Among these would have been his father-in-law, Edward Barnard (b. 1767), who had died in 4 January 1855.
Please cite as “Tyndall1031,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on