Royal Institution of Great Britain | Thursday 12th. June
My dear Clausius.
I return you my best thanks for Mayer’s papers which I have read with astonishment2 On Friday evening last I gave a discourse in our theatre3 which consisted entirely in a resumé of what Mayer had done, and gave to him all the credit which he merits. Dove was there and many Noblemen and gentlemen—some of them eminent in Science. Faraday, Wheatstone, and the President of the Royal Society4 were among the audience and they all seemed greatly interested.
I have sent his last pamphlet to the Philosophical Magazine5 for translation and shall probably translate the others in due time.
Your papers are also in hand, and partly in the press.
The British Association meets very late this year, the 1st. of October at Cambridge6—I go to Switzerland early in July and hope to return before the end of August.7 We shall then have many pleasant meetings—I would offer you a bed had I not already offered mine to Poggendorff.8 But we must arrange to spend a good deal of time together when you come to London.
If you go to Cambridge we will go together then.
Many thanks for your kind promise to look at my proof sheets. I have been compelled to defer the writing out of the lectures my head is so bad.
Yours ever | John Tyndall
RI MS JT/1/T/236
[1862]: the year is given based on relation to letter 1904 and reference to the 1862 meeting of the BAAS in Cambridge .
Mayer’s papers which I have read with astonishment: Tyndall had asked Clausius to send him copies of the German physicist Julius Robert Mayer’s (1814–78) works (see letter 1896, Tyndall Correspondence, vol. 7), which he was amazed to find were of high quality, original, and importantly, had anticipated the results of James Prescott Joule, William Thomson, and Peter Guthrie Tait regarding the mechanical equivalent of heat. As a result, Tyndall took up Mayer’s cause as having the rightful claim to priority. Tyndall’s efforts and the acrimony it fostered were ongoing for much of the period covered by this volume. See the Introduction. Tyndall had also asked for and received papers of Mayer’s from Hermann Helmholtz (see letter 1893, Tyndall Correspondence, vol. 7).
I gave a discourse in our theatre: Tyndall attempted to revive the work Mayer had done during his Friday Evening Discourse, ‘On Force’, at the RI on 6 June 1862 (Roy. Inst. Proc., 3 (1858–62), pp. 527–36).
President of the Royal Society: Edward Sabine
his last pamphlet to the Philosophical Magazine: J. R. Mayer, ‘Remarks on the Forces of Inorganic Nature’, Phil. Mag., 24 (1862), pp. 371 – 7.
The British Association… at Cambridge: the BAAS held its thirty-second meeting in Cambridge from 1–7 October 1862 (see letter 1904, n. 9). Clausius had asked Tyndall for the dates (see letter 1904).
I go to Switzerland early in July… the end of August : Tyndall travelled to Switzerland on 4 July and returned on 16 August.
Poggendorff: Poggendorff accepted Tyndall’s invitation to London and stated his intention to bring his daughter with him (see letter 1900, Tyndall Correspondence, vol. 7). In letter 1910 of this volume, he confirmed his intentions to come to London with his daughter to attend the International Exhibition of London (see letter 1904, n. 8). In letter 1931, Poggendorff thanked Tyndall for hosting them.
Please cite as “Tyndall1905,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on