Athenaeum | 14 April 1856.
Dear Dr. Tyndall,
I have carefully looked over the Paper I propose for the Phil. Mag.,1 and have endeavoured to meet your views about it as to length. I find I can not manage to write the paper over again – for want of time but I have cut out at least 4 pages of it – so as to bring it under a more convenient space – the parts cut out are those to which you seemed to take exception – and it does not appear to me upon very due consideration, that it is now open to much controversy at all events. The enclosed2 has just turned up among my papers will you favour me by accepting it: the record may be useful for reference – I have sent on the paper to the printer as requested by you – – and I trust it may turn out useful to science and not be altogether unworthy of the Phil. Magazine – I have cut out the last figure relating to Doves Experiment3 and will endeavour to make it a subject for separate consideration.
most faithfully yours | W. Snow Harris.
[Enclosure]
Since we met4 I have examined carefully under competent authority M. Riess work and his Papers in Poggendorf 5– and have satisfied myself that he does really estimate what he calls ‘Density’ of Electricity by the Electrometer – as given by De La Rive6 – I find that De La Rive’s statements are mere transcript of Riess’s work – and Riess work is in great parts a mere repetition of his former Papers in Poggendorf. It is true he finds fault with the terms Tension &c. &c. but still he employs them and explains them under the term Density &c.. &c.. Riess in his papers I find does nothing but object to all I have done but does the same thing himself under another form. I am quite prepared with answers to all Riess has said.
Professor Tyndall | F.R.S. &c.
RI MS JT/1/2/469
LT Transcript Only
the Paper I propose for the Phil. Mag.: Even after cutting, Harris’s prolix paper occupied 22 pages of the May issue of Phil. Mag., W. Snow Harris, ‘On a General Law of Electrical Discharge’, Phil. Mag., 11 (1856), pp. 339 –60. The paper was an historical account of his own researches on static electricity since 1826 and a bitter attack on the work of Peter Riess (as suggested in the enclosure to Tyndall). Riess replied with a paper carrying the same title, Phil. Mag., 11 (1856), pp. 524 –7, in which he accused Harris of being out of date. Harris then replied with ‘On Certain Phaenomena of Electrical Discharge’, Phil. Mag., 12 (1856), pp. 136 – 40 in which he accused Riess of being ‘dictatorial and intolerant’. Riess answered back two months’ later with ‘On a Law of Electrical Heat’, Phil. Mag., 12 (1856], pp. 322 – 4, in which he accused Harris of personal affront. Harris had the last word at the end of the year with ‘On Riess’s Law of Electrical Heat’, Phil. Mag., 12 (1856), pp. 553 – 4. Tyndall had foreseen the consequences of publication when he wrote in his Journal, ‘I have asked him [Harris] to condense it, saying that if published in its present form it would give rise to a discussion of which I do not see the end.’ RI MS JT/2/13c/833.
The enclosed: the paragraph following the signature below.
Dove’s Experiment: In 1842 Dove had investigated the effect on electrostatic induction when iron rods were placed in helical coils (H. W. Dove, ‘Ueber die durch Annähherung von massive Eisen und eisernen inducierten elektrischen Ströme, Poggend. Annal., 56 (1842), pp. 268‒74), and his apparatus was discussed in A. de la Rive, A Treatise on Electricity (London: Longmans, 1853), p. 425. Snow Harris did not refer to the experiment in his later papers.
Since we met: According to Tyndall’s Journal, Tyndall and Harris had met on 10 April 1856. ‘I have asked him to condense it, saying that if published in its present form it would give rise to a discussion of which I do not see the end’ ( RI MS JT/2/13c/833).
Papers in Poggendorf: Notably Peter Riess, ‘Bemerkung über die electrische Influenz’ [Remarks on electric induction], Poggend. Annal., 93 (1854), pp. 626–7; ‘Ueber den Einfluss der Leitung eines electrischen Stromes auf die Act seiner Einladung’ [On the effect of conduction of an electric current on its discharge], Poggend. Annal., 98 (1856), pp. 524–7; and ‘Ueber die electrischen Pausen’ [On electric discharge], Poggend. Annal., 99 (1856), pp. 571–98.
as given by De la Rive: Harris’s remark must refer to the first volume of A. De la Rive, Traité d’Electricité Théorique et Appliqué (Paris: J. B. Ballière, 1854).
Please cite as “Tyndall1210,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on