29th Aug. 1859
My dear Tom.
Here is a terrible paper1 for you. It was sent under cover to me, and I am just arrived in time to receive it. I reached London on Monday morning having completed more swiftly than I anticipated my work in the Alps.2 I am now hard at work trying to get at portion of my book off my hands.
I went to the top of Mont Blanc,3 and we planted scopes & thermometers at several stations between top & bottom—We remained a night at the summit—I suffered awfully from headache, for I left Chamouni4 with a splitting head. Frankland acquitted himself very creditably—the snow was in first rate condition and the climb altogether an easy one.5
I am undecided about Aberdeen,6 but the probability is that I shall remain here and get a lot of my book off hands.7
Ever affectionately yours | John
Monday
Stokes has resigned his Professorship at the school of Mines8—and Sir Roderick Murchison in the handsomest manner offers it [to me]. 9 I do not know the motive of Stokes—perhaps he was too mathematical.10
BL, Add MS 63092, ff. 16-227v
RI MS JT/1/HTYP/518
terrible paper: not identified.
my work in the Alps: Tyndall travelled through the French Alps during August 1859, where he for example set up experimental stations on Mont Blanc.
Mont Blanc: see letter 1634, n. 4.
Chamouni: As part of his visit to the French Alps, Tyndall spent time in Chamonix, see also letter 1634, n. 4.
Frankland [acquitted] himself … the climb altogether an easy one: This was omitted in Lousia Tyndall’s typed version.
Aberdeen: see letter 1605, n. 11. See also letters 1638, n. 11 and 1639, n. 5.
I am undecided about Aberdeen … get a lot of my book off hands: This was omitted in Louisa Tyndall’s typed version. LT’s typed letter included instead ‘When are you coming to London. I am thinking of taking a run into Hampshire for a few days’. LT omitted and changed several parts in her transcription. See also n. 10.
Stokes has resigned his Professorship at the school of Mines: Stokes taught at the Royal School of Mines during the 1850s to supplement his income as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, until the Lucasian Chair was assigned a higher pay (George Stokes and Joseph Larmor (ed), Memoirs and Scientific Correspondence of the late Sir George Gabriel Stokes, vol. 1 (Cambridge University Press: 1907, 2010), p. 142). See also letters 1638, 1639, 1640, 1641, and 1642.
to me: the letter from Murchison is missing. Tyndall accepted a post as Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Royal School of Mines in London in 1859, which he held for nine years.
Stokes has resigned … perhaps he was too mathematical: This part was omitted in Louisa Tyndall’s typed version. The end paragraphs of LT transcript of letter 1637 belonged to the handwritten version of this letter, but were excluded in the LT transcript. See also letter 1637, n. 5.
Please cite as “Tyndall1635,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on