Hornsey1 | 15 Sep 1856
My dear Tyndall,
It is too bad of me to think of putting you off with a short letter, and yet I think I must do so, to save the post, for the 15th2 has come most unawares on me. Being here in the country for my wife’s benefit, the dates are beguiled away from me. Your letter was most welcome, and many have enjoyed it. I return you our most sincere thanks for the great favour. On our part we have no events to describe; we are rusticating. I try to experiment and write, but I forget so fast that I have the pleasure of doing both over two or three times. Never mind. A time for all things.3
I called and saw Mr. Addams4 the other day. I found him disinclined to separate his acoustical apparatus5 one part from another. He has told you, I believe, that the price of the whole would be £80. I have not seen them, and indeed if I had, I could not have formed any judgment, for I do not know the present state of acoustical apparatus and should be unable to make any comparison with that which exists elsewhere, or in the collection of lectures. He said he would send me a bit of them, but I have not received it.
I suppose before you receive this you will meet with Dr. Bence Jones.6 If so, do not let him forget me. Very kindest thoughts to both him and you from all of us here. My wife is really better for the country, and we have had very fine weather. As to the house in Albemarle St., Anderson is well, Mr. Vincent7 is well, Miss Savage8 is somewhere in France, and has sent a letter, but no address. I do not know whether you expect to meet with any of our German friends at Vienna. Schrotter9 remember me to, and the others if you see them. I think you told me something about Magnus and the transparency of gold [foil]. If so, tell him it works on pretty well – very curiously in my mind – but as yet with no broad distinct result which will strike scientific men, though I hope it may help the working of some.
Your account of your wanderings in the Oberland and also by Strasburg Bale, &c &c &c was most delightful to us, having been over the same ground.10 We also were stopped at the Grimsel glacier, by illness. We had agreed to meet Agassiz, and could not go up to him, and so it goes in intentions and acts: not always well accordant, but let us hope well.
I must not stop | Ever, dear Tyndall, | Yours very truly | M. Faraday.
Dr. Tyndall | Post Restante | Vienna | Austria11
RI MS JT/12/4141
Faraday Correspondence, 5: 3189
LT Transcript Only
Hornsey: The Faradays were spending the summer at Hornsey, which was still a village to the north of London near Highgate and Crouch End, for the sake of Sarah Faraday’s health.
the 15th: In letter 1273 Tyndall had told Faraday that the 15 September would be the last date by which letters posted to him would reach him in Vienna.
A time for all things: Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors, II, 2, 65.
Mr Addams: see letter 1273, n.20.
his acoustical apparatus: see letter 1273, n.20.
you will meet with Dr. Bence Jones: It is not known whether Jones attended the Vienna meeting.
Mr Vincent: Benjamin Vincent (1819–99), Sandemanian Librarian of the RI who had married Ellen Barnard.
Miss Savage: Sarah Savage (1808–65) had been the RI’s housekeeper since 1835.
Schrotter: Anton Schrötter (1802–75), Austrian chemist who discovered the red form of phosphorus in 1848. He was Professor of Chemistry at the Vienna Polytechnic from 1845 and Secretary of the Vienna Academy since 1851.
over the same ground: The Faradays had travelled in Switzerland in the summer of 1841 and seen the upper glacier of Grindelwald.
Post Restante | Vienna | Austria: Address transferred from cover.
Please cite as “Tyndall1278,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on