MY LORDS,
I HAVE this day re-perused the Report of the Illumination of the Picture Galleries of the South Kensington Museum,2 bearing date the 20th of July 1859, and beg to state that I see no reason to deviate from the opinion embodied in that report.
With reference to the question raised by the letter of Mr. Braidwood,3 to which my attention has been directed, I have to state that, with the observed temperatures of those portions of the gallery which are most exposed to the action of the gas before me, it is my opinion that no danger can arise from such elevations of temperatures as the gas applied as at present is competent to produce.
Such elevations of temperature are indeed very much less than those effected by the solar heat, in a room roofed by glass, upon an ordinary summer’s day. In presence of these facts, I do not hesitate to express the decided opinion that no danger is to be apprehended from the mode of illumination now in use at South Kensington.
I have, &c. | (Signed) JOHN TYNDALL.
Thursday, 11th July 1861.
Report of the Commission on the Heating, Lighting, and Ventilation of the South Kensington Museum together with minutes of evidence and appendix [4206], House of Commons Papers, (1868–9), p. 90.
Lord President and Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education: The Committee of the Privy Council on Education was created on 10 April 1839 ‘to superintend the application of any sums voted by Parliament for the purpose of promoting public education’. The Lord President was Granville George Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville.
Report of the Illumination of the Picture Galleries of the South Kensington Museum: [106] Lighting picture galleries by gas. Report of the commission appointed to consider the subject of lighting picture galleries by gas, House of Commons Papers, 15 (1859 Session 2). Tyndall had been a member of the Commission chaired by Michael Faraday, with August Hofmann, Richard Redgrave and Capt. Francis Fowke, RE. It concluded that ‘there is nothing innate in coal gas which renders its application to the illumination of picture galleries objectionable’.
the question raised by the letter of Mr. Braidwood: James Braidwood, Superintendent of the London Fire Engine Establishment, had written to the principal librarian of the British Museum on 11 April suggesting that it was too risky to light the galleries of the British Museum by gas: British Museum (Lighting by Gas): Copy of any reports made to Trustees of the British Museum with reference to lighting that institution by gas, and any resolution of the Trustees in relation thereto, House of Commons Papers, 34 (1861). The Trustees passed a resolution on 13 April saying they were of the opinion that the Museum should not be open at any hour that required gaslight.
Please cite as “Tyndall1795,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on