Louisville, Ky, Aug 28th 1863 | Prof Tyndall | Royal Institution,
Dear Sir,
I have been looking for a report of your last spring lectures on Sound;2 but have been disappointed in finding one in either of this scientific periodicals which I receive, viz, the Philosophical Magazine and the Chemical News.3
As professor of Physics in the University of the Public Schools of this city I announced to my class and to a number of citizens who are interested in science that I would repeat your experiments illustrative of the subject of sound which you were at the time making for your auditory in London, provided I could get a report of them.
Last year I repeated your lecture on light as reported in the Chem. News4 and I think that nothing of that kind had given to much satisfaction here, and we were anticipating an unusual scientific treat, in the event of obtaining your discourses on Acoustics.5
Not being able to find a report in any of the scientific periodicals to which I have access, I must beg you to excuse me for addressing you direct; but I am hoping that some other publication may contain it, and in that case I shall esteem it as an extraordinary favor if you will furnish me with one.
I would refer you to MS David Taylor & Sons,6 Mark Lane, | Dr Francis,7 Phil Mag, | Dr Dewitt,8 Hertford St Mayfair, or Mr Crookes,9 Ed Chem News,
I am yours most res[pect]f[ul]ly | Thos. E. Jenkins
P.S. For the purposes of illustration we have all the important pieces of optical and acoustic apparatus as made by MM. Duboscq & Koenig10 of Paris.
RI MS JT/1/J/26
Thomas E. Jenkins: Thomas E. Jenkins (dates unknown), professor of physics in the University of the Public Schools in Louisville, Kentucky, and possibly also a pharmacist and member of the American Pharmaceutical Association and Medico-Chirurgical Society.
spring lectures on Sound: see letter 2001, n. 8.
Chemical News: The Chemical News and Journal of Physical Science, a British periodical dedicated to topics in chemistry and physics, edited by William Crookes (see n. 9).
as reported in the Chem. News: J. Tyndall, ‘Notes: A Course of Six Lectures on Light’, The Chemical News and Journal of Industrial Science, 7 (1862), pp. 20–6.
your discourses on Acoustics: see n. 2.
David Taylor & Sons: David Taylor established the firm in 1792 and it was managed by his sons until 1880. It was located first at 46 Cross Street until 1851, then 76 Mark Lane until 1865, and finally 61 Mark Lane until 1880 (H. Taylor (ed), A sketch, left by David Taylor, of his own life between 1759 & 1792 (London, 1880), p. 15).
Dr Francis: William Francis.
Dr Dewitt: not identified.
Crookes: William Crookes (1832–1919), a British chemist, physicist, and editor who studied organic chemistry at the Royal College of Chemistry where he became assistant to August Wilhelm von Hoffman. It was through Hoffman that he met Faraday at the RI, who convinced him to change the focus of his work to optical physics. From 1855 he lectured in chemistry at Chester Diocesan Training College, but following a significant inheritance upon the death of his father, he set up his own physics laboratory. In 1859 he founded and edited Chemical News, and was an enthusiastic supporter of the methods of spectral analysis proposed by Bunsen and Kirchhoff. Indeed, it was through the application of their methods in his own work that he discovered, and named, thallium. He was elected FRS in 1863 (ODNB).
MM. Duboscq & Koenig: Louis Jules Duboscq (1817–86), a French instrument maker, and Rudolph Koenig (1832–1901), a German physicist, both operated instrument making firms in Paris, specializing in optical and acoustic equipment, respectively (P. Brenni, ‘Nineteenth-century French scientific instrument makers, XIII: Soleil, Duboscq, and their successors’, Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society, 51 (1996), pp. 7–16; P. Brenni, ‘Nineteenth-century French scientific instrument makers, VI. The triumph of experimental acoustics: Albert Marloye (1795-1874) and Rudolph Koenig (1832-1901)’, Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society, 44 (1995), pp. 13–7).
Please cite as “Tyndall2030,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on