Royal Institution Oct. 9th. 1855.
Sir,
On Saturday evening I received 5 iron bottles from Mr Newman,2 and yesterday I made a cylinder of bismuth in a glass tube 3 inches long. I then cut it into 2 pieces of 1½ inches each, I put 1 of the pieces into one of the iron bottles filled it with water. Screwed it up and put it into a freezing mixture in a very few minutes there was a pretty loud explosion.
When I looked the bottle was broke into 5 pieces, I allowed the bismuth to remain in the freezing mixture till all the ice was dissolved. I then took it out dried it and with the other piece I send of to Dr Frankland the same time I post this
I remain3 | Your humble servant | Charles Anderson
RI MS JT/1/12/4207
LT Typescript Only
From Charles Anderson: It would appear that this note from Anderson was sent to Tyndall via Faraday, possibly as an enclosure.
Mr Newman: John Newman (c. 1783–1860), optician and instrument maker of 122 Regent Street who frequently supplied apparatus for the RI.
I remain: followed by ‘(Sir)’ in typescript, but probably added by LT.
Please cite as “Tyndall1145,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on