Owens College | Manchester Nov. 13/55
My dear Tyndall
Many thanks for the rockers,1 I used them in my lecture this morning & they performed very well, to the great delight of my students who were greatly amused by the attempts of the musical one to vary its tone.
You promised me a Bakerian lecture2 at least half a dozen times but never yet fulfilled your promise. Send it by return of post like a good fellow along with that extract from your journal3 which you promised my wife & for which she has been teazing me ever since.
You also promised me the ‘Red Tape Worm’,4 between Sawry and Hawshead;5 don’t you recollect? A propos, we did not see the floating island on the Priest’s Pot,6 a friend of mine saw it a fortnight after we were there; it was pointed out to him by the farmer, who saw it blown across the lake last year & it is now partly stranded on the opposite side of the pot to the place where we thought it to be.
The Bristol affair7 is still in abeyance and I feel my reluctance to make such a change increase rather than otherwise. I would not entertain the idea for a moment had I a desirable set of students, but to be eternally dragging mere children through the 5 groups8 & no further is mere mechanical work, scarcely superior to breaking stones, and I feel it to be for me a waste of time. However this session I have got together a little knot of workers around me, who I hope will greatly relieve the monotony of my usual routine. viz. My two Assistants Dr. Guthrie9 & Mr Wanklyn10 (a former pupil of mine) Dr. Russell11 & Dr. Muspratt12 (not the great Sheridan13 fortunately) but his youngest brother who has worked with Liebig14 for several years. With Guthrie I am so far very well pleased he is an earnest & industrious follower of science, the very opposite in every respect to his predecessor.15 He is working at Organo-metallic bodies. Russell is investigating the gases in the interior of different flames he finds that by using my machine he can get through a year’s work in a couple of months & he will therefore work here during the Winter instead of returning to Heidelberg.
Wanklyn has formed Cadmium ethyl & is working at this & other organo-metallic compounds with great zeal & industry, & Muspratt comes to me next week to learn Assaying. I am also pitching Commerce to the devil as much as I can afford & working hard at my researches. I have applied to the Royal16 for another grant this year, which, if I get it, will enable me to push on my experiments greatly.
My little wife has just increased the number of my olive branches by presenting me with a little girl last Saturday week.17 Both mother & infant I am happy to say are as well as possible.
Believe me | ever sincerely yours | E. Frankland.
P.S. Our Red Lion friend Mr Jennings18 sent me the copy of ‘Groves of Blarney’.19 He wrote from a London Hotel so I could not reply & thank him. If you ever see him pray present my best thanks & kind regards.
P.S. When would you like to have my letter on Bunsen’s researches?20 There is another matter connected with the Royal Society which I would earnestly lay upon your soul, as the Germans say. The other day Joule sent me a certificate to sign in favour of Mr James Young the Paraffin Oil man:21 he is described as being eminent as a chemical manufacturer, the discover of several new manufacturing processes & as being attached to science & anxious to promote its progress. Now I know Young very well & also his so-called discoveries, of the latter, Paraffine & Paraffine Oil are the most celebrated & on them you already know my sentiments, but if you like I will send you the references to Reichenbach’s memoirs22 so as to enable you to judge for yourself. His other discovery is the Stannate of Soda process23 which is nothing more than the repetition of a well known laboratory process on a large scale. It is in fact merely fusing the ore with caustic soda to render it soluble. On these two inventions rests all Young’s so-called eminence as a chemical manufacturer; as to his being attached to science & anxious to promote its progress I say emphatically that he is entirely destitute of these qualities as they are understood in the Royal Society; his attachment & anxiety refer only to such portions of science as can be made available for putting money into his own pocket. Of course I returned his certificate to Joule24 with as strong an expression of opinion as I have just made. Such admissions into the Royal Society will bring great discredit upon it especially in this district, where the true characters of such men are known.
With kindest regards & the compliments of the season in which my wife cordially joins
Ever yours sincerely | E. Frankland.
RI MS JT/1/F/45
the rockers: see letter 1149, n. 8.
a Bakerian lecture: a copy of Tyndall’s paper cited in letter 1029, n. 1.
that extract from your journal: not identified.
Red Tape Worm: A humorous verse written by the recently-deceased naturalist Edward Forbes, but allegedly composed by a ‘Government Clerk, who at an advanced age had awakened to the knowledge of the fallacy of the Superannuation Fund’. Parts of the poem were published in several contemporary periodicals, such as J. H. B., ‘Biography of the Late Professor Edward Forbes’, Monthly Journal of Medicine, 20 (1855), pp. 75–92, on pp. 87–8.
between Sawry and Hawshead: Sawrey and Hawkshead are villages in the Lake District that Tyndall and Frankland visited in early September before heading to the meeting of the BAAS in Glasgow.
the floating island on the Priest’s Pot: Esthwaite Water, ‘which is two miles long, and half a mile broad;– a quiet sheet of water, with two promontories stretching into it, which appear like islands, nearly dividing it into a chain of ponds. A round pond at the northern end of the lake, connected with it by a narrow creek, exhibits a strange phenæmenon. It has a floating island […] actually bearing trees: and this island is carried by strong winds from the one side to the other. The name of the pond is Priest’s Pot’ (H. Martineau, A Complete Guide to the Lakes (Windermere: J. Garnett, 1855), p. 29).
The Bristol affair: Frankland had been undertaking consultancy work for Cox, Score & Co., a manufacturer of alkali and vitriol of Netham, Bristol, and presumably had been offered further employment.
through the 5 groups: ‘In the systematic examination of the metallic oxides, the substances […] are arranged in five groups, by the successive employment of HYDROCHLORIC ACID, SULPHURETTED HYDROGEN, AMMONIA, SULPHIDE OF AMMONIUM, and CARBONATE or AMMONIA’ (J. F. Forbes, First Steps in Practical Chemistry, for Agricultural Students, Farmers, and Bleachers (London: Longmans, Brown, Green, Longmans and Roberts, 1858), p. 3.
Dr. Guthrie: Having studied at University College, London, and the University of Heidelberg, Frederick Guthrie (1833–86) received his PhD from the University of Marburg in 1855 and then worked as an assistant to Frankland at Owens College, Manchester.
Mr Wanklyn: James Alfred Wanklyn (1834–1906) had been apprenticed to a chemist in Manchester.
Dr. Russell: William James Russell (1830–1909) had studied chemistry at University College, London, and then worked as Frankland’s assistant (1851–3), before moving to the University of Heidelberg where he obtained his PhD in 1855. He had then returned to Manchester.
Dr. Muspratt: The industrial chemist Edmund Knowles Muspratt (1833–1923), who had studied under Liebig and gained his PhD from the University of Munich before returning to the family alkali firm on Merseyside.
great Sheridan: A student of Liebig’s at the University of Giessen, the Irish chemist James Sheridan Muspratt (1821–71), whose family owned a highly successful alkali manufacturing business on Merseyside, had founded the Liverpool College of Chemistry in 1841.
Liebig: see letter 1137, n. 8.
his predecessor: either C. J. Tufnell or B. Wilhelm Gerland.
the Royal: the RS, which received a £1000 p.a. grant from the government for the promotion of science. In 1855–6 Frankland received a grant of £100 for ‘the continuation of his researches on Organo-Metallic Bodies’ (Return of the Application of the Sum of £1,000 Annually Voted to the Royal Society for Each Year since the Last Return; viz. the Year Ended 5 April 1855, p. 1; House of Commons Sessional Papers, 1862 (192), XXX.651.
My little wife … Saturday week: Frankland’s wife, Sophie, gave birth to a daughter, Sophie Jeannette, on November 3, 1855. Her middle name was taken from Jeannette du Bois-Reymond (see letter 1067, n. 4), Emil du Bois-Reymond’s attractive young wife.
Our Red Lion friend Mr Jennings: Tyndall and Frankland met Thomas Jennings (dates unknown) a soda water and magnesia manufacturer from Cork at the Red Lion Club (see letter 1049, n. 3).
Groves of Blarney: an Irish melody by Richard Alfred Millikin or, possibly, the drama of that title by Anna Maria Hall.
my letter on Bunsen’s researches: not located.
Mr James Young the Paraffin Oil man: The Scottish chemist James Young (1811–83) had developed a method to produce paraffin oil by the distillation of coal. Joule had circulated a certificate in order to gain signatories in support of Young’s admission to the RS.
Reichenbach’s memoirs: The chemist and polymath Carl Reichenbach (1788–1869) discovered paraffin, which he discussed in several publications including ‘Beitrage zur näheren Kenntniss der trockenen Destination organischer Körper’, Journal für Chemie und Physik, 59 (1830), pp. 436–60; ‘Ueber das Paraffin’, ibid., 61 (1831), pp. 274–91.
the Stannate of Soda process: While working as a chemical engineer in Manchester, Young developed an improved method for producing sodium stannate (Na2SnO3), which was used in calico printing. At the 1851 Great Exhibition Young displayed ‘Mineral oil. Paraffine. Stannates, with models of apparatus’ (Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue, 3 vols (London: Spicer Bros, 1851), vol. 1, p. 187).
I returned his certificate to Joule: It would appear that the certificate supporting Young’s admission to the RS was not submitted in 1855. However, in 1873 Young was admitted, with Frankland’s name at the top of his list of supporters.
Please cite as “Tyndall1153,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on