My dear General3
Two public departments4 clash today in my poor person. Yours, and that of the School of Mines.5 I would go to you if I could get a friend to lecture for me.
I therefore have asked my friend Mr Hirst (who is intimately aquainted with physics & is head mathematical master in University College) to take my place at Chelsea6 today.
Most truly yours | John Tyndall
RI MS JT/1/T/955
[Major-general Joseph Ellison Portlock]: This note is enclosed with letter 1761 to Hirst. The addressee is possibly Major-general Joseph Ellison Portlock (1784–1864), whom Tyndall knew well, consistent with a familiar mode of address. Portlock was a member of the Council of Military Education, and had been Inspector of Studies at Woolwich until 1856. It is also possible that the letter is to Major-general Randal Rumley, Vice-President of the Council.
[22 January 1861]: see letter 1761.
General: see n. 1.
Two public departments: Tyndall’s lecturing at the School of Mines and examining for the Council of Military Education. In the evening of 22 January, Tyndall gave a lecture at the School of Mines on electricity, one of a weekly series of ten lectures for Working Men that had started on 8 January. Hirst managed to return in time to attend it (Hirst Journal, RI MS JT/2/32c/1567).
School of Mines: Government School of Mines in Jermyn Street.
Chelsea: Chelsea Hospital, the location for the examination of cadets for entry to Woolwich.
Please cite as “Tyndall1762,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on