Owens College | Manchester Feb. 19/55
My dear Tyndall
Many thanks for your hint about the chlorine experiment.1 I certainly intend to mention the precaution you name as I have a strong expression2 that it was at one time in my manuscript so that I cannot exactly account for its omission. In the next edition3 I shall alter the experiment altogether as I now know of a very beautiful and perfectly safe way of performing it, viz. by putting the gaseous mixture into a collodion balloon and then allowing it to ascend into the sunlight, or simply exposing it in the hand to the sun’s rays. The explosion is immediate & perfectly free from danger. This experiment could probably be made by the electric light & if so should form a nice illustration in the Royal Institution Theatre. In fact these collodion balloons4 are invaluable for lecture illustrations, for instance the explosibility of O&H is beautifully shewn by filling a balloon with them & then allowing it to ascend after tying to its neck a short ignited thread impregnated with nitre. But you probably knew all about this long ago & I am merely wasting time & paper should you however require to know how to make these balloons I will give you every information with pleasure as I frequently make them myself. I was much pleased with your article in Hughes’ book,5 & also congratulate you on being honoured by a call to the Bakerian Lecture.6
Ever yours sincerely | E. Frankland
RI MS JT/1/F/42
your hint about the chlorine experiment: if given in a letter, that letter is missing.
expression: Frankland presumably intended to write ‘impression’.
the next edition: The present edition being Edward Frankland’s article ‘Chemistry’, in E. Hughes (ed.), Reading Lessons, First Book (London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, 1855), pp. 221–45. The experiment (p. 242) concerned the action of light, especially sunlight, on a mixture of chlorine and hydrogen.
collodion balloons: Collodion is a solution of gun-cotton in ether, forming a colourless gummy liquid, which dries rapidly in the air, owing to evaporation of the ether (OED). On 25 March 1855 Tyndall and Debus attempted to make collodion balloons but ‘thus far it has been a failure’ (Journal: RI MS JT/2/13c/830).
your article in Hughes’ book: Tyndall’s article ‘Natural Philosophy’, in Hughes, Reading Lessons, First Book, pp. 296–338.
the Bakerian Lecture: see letter 1029, n. 1.
Please cite as “Tyndall1046,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on