Broomfield, Sheffield. | Jan. 28/58.
My dear Tyndall,
You will remember we tried to freeze the water in the fluid cavity in quartz, but could not.1 I have now made out the true facts of the case, but cannot just see why they should be so. In tubes of moderate diam., water does not freeze till the tem., is about 23°F, unless a bit of ice is in contact, when it does easily at 31°. It therefore as it were objects to commence crystallizing until much below the thawing point. This of course is well known. However if kept perfectly still in moderately large tubes it freezes at 20°, without any hesitation. What however is remarkable is the fact that in very minute tubes it will not freeze till the tem. is about 6°F unless in contact with ice, when it does at 31°. At 10° it certainly will not, even when knocked about. I have proved whether it was frozen or not by making use of polarized light—Ice has the power of depolarizing, but water not. The presence of a small quantity of salt lowers the tem. at which the water freezes, and there is apparently some dissolved in the water in the fluid cavity we experimented on, and therefore it did not freeze even at 0°. A large fluid cavity in another specimen froze just like water, and thawed exactly at 32°.
I cannot think of any good explanation of the above facts. Can you suggest any? If you can, I should like to have your opinion: and, if you think well, ask Faraday what he thinks about it.
Since you are so much thrown in the way of information, could you put me in the way of some lectures,2 suitable for our Lit. & Phil. Society?3 We require first rate, popular, scientific or literary lectures. The sort we have had from Hunt4 and Lancaster5 were very good for us. We should like some of a literary or art character or first rate ones on astronomy. If you could tell me of any likely people, it would be a great kindness, since all we had calculated on appear to be failing us.
Yours very truly | H.C. Sorby.
RI MS JT/1/TYP/4/1353
LT Typescript Only
You will remember we tried to freeze the water in the fluid cavity in quartz, but could not: for Sorby’s account of this observation, see H. C. Sorby, ‘On the Microscopical Structure of Crystals, indicating the Origin of Minerals and Rocks’, Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, 14 (1858), pp. 453–500, on pp. 471–5.
could you put me in the way of some lectures: for Tyndall’s response, see letter 1492.
Lit. & Phil. Society: the Sheffield Literary and Philosophical Society was founded in 1822 and served as a meeting place for individuals to share and debate a variety of topics of educational and cultural interest. Sorby organized lectures for the Society and served as its president five times.
Hunt: see letter 1311, n. 8.
Lancaster: Edwin Lankester (1814–74), an English naturalist who served as President of the BAAS for a quarter-century, was friends with Darwin and Thomas Huxley, and through studying water through a microscope was instrumental in curbing cholera outbreak in London (ODNB). Lankester lectured for the Sheffield Literary and Philosophical Society in 1848 on ‘The Natural History of Plants Yielding Food’, and in 1851 on ‘Plants and Vegetable Substances Used in the Arts and Manufactures’.
Please cite as “Tyndall1488,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on