1859 January 26
My dear Sir
Most unhappily your letter of 17th.1 arrived just when my return from the country was doubtful for a day or two, and was not forwarded: and since returning I have had to go through a vast mass of papers, and reached it only last night. I fear that my answer now is useless.
1. The apparatus for my lectures at Ipswich2 was cobbled up here as I wanted it. It is the property of the Ipswich Museum. Lately I borrowed some of it for a lecture at Bury:3 it required considerable repair. I suppose that all the rest, so far as it exists, would require repair. I do not imagine that any thing of the sort is to be found at shops.
2. Part of the Cavendish model4 is here: it must have come by some mistake. You shall have it tomorrow (unless you countermand it). I enclose a note5 to my friends Messrs. Ransomes Sims6 of the Orwell Works7 Ipswich, who have so much influence in the Museum that they can do anything to serve you there. You can forward the note, or not, as you think best.
I am, my dear Sir, | Yours very truly | GB Airy
I have no doubt that the use of the mirror would have sensibly increased the delicacy of the observation.
Professor Tyndall
RGO MS.RGO 6/408.381–2
your letter of 17th: letter 1582.
my lectures at Ipswich: see letter 1582, n. 1.
a lecture at Bury: in October 1858, Airy gave a lecture on astronomy at the Athenaeum in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. Airy’s talk, during which the spectacular Donati’s comet was on display (see letter 1560, n. 5), inspired the construction of an astronomical observatory. See M. P. Mobberley and K. J. Goward, ‘The Bury St Edmunds Athenaeum Observatory’, Journal of the British Astronomical Association, 115 (2005), pp. 251–60, on p. 254.
Cavendish model: see letter 1582, n. 4.
a note: letter missing.
Messrs. Ransomes Sims: Robert Ransome (1795–1864), James Allen Ransome (1806–75), and William Dillwyn Sims (1825–95) operated an agricultural machinery production company in Ipswich which also produced iron works for astronomical observatories. The company, founded in the late eighteenth century by Robert Ransome (1753–1830), changed ownership between many members of the Ransome family and others. See B. Bell, Ransomes Sims & Jefferies: Agricultural Engineers (Sheffield: Old Pond Publishing, 2001).
Orwell Works: the name of the Ransomes and Sims’ production plant.
Please cite as “Tyndall1585,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on