Clarendon Hotel, Chale, Isle of Wight | Wednesday
My Dear Sir,—I have read the proof which you have been kind enough to send me2 with extreme interest. Being a truant from the Section at Newcastle,3 I did not know that you had brought the subject forward there. Professor Stokes, however, informed me that you were engaged on the question,4 and I had similar information from the ‘Saturday Review.’5
There is certainly a most singular coincidence in the thoughts which have passed through both our minds on some of the points in question. As to the possibility of converting the Herschellic into the Newtonic rays I do not entertain a doubt; and indeed the piece of work which I had set before me for attack on my return from this place was a series of experiments on this very subject.
I have devised a very perfect means of sifting the Herschellic from the Newtonic rays, and with the latter alone I have strong hopes of being able to produce incandescence. But you have entered this field before me, and although the question lies directly in the way of my own inquiries, I should like to do in the matter what would be the most pleasing to you. I shall be in town on Saturday next, at the Royal Institution at noon; could you not look in upon me there?
Yours very sincerely | John Tyndall
J. Tyndall, ‘On the History of Calorescence,’ Phil. Mag., 29 (1864), pp. 221–2
[March 1864]: the month and year are given based on relation to letter 2075.
which you have been kind enough to send me: see letter 2075, n. 3.
the Section at Newcastle: see letter 2024, n. 3.
Professor Stokes, however, informed me that you were engaged on the question: Tyndall later wrote to George Busk to check the dates that both he and Stokes had both been in attendance at the Athenaeum Club, presumably in order to verify the date at which Stokes had in fact first mentioned Akin’s work to him. While Tyndall’s presumed letter is missing, Busk’s reply is letter 2173.
Saturday Review: probably ‘Calcescence’, Saturday Review, 17 (1864), pp. 105–6. This is a report of Akin’s 4 December 1863 lecture before the Natural Science Society at the University of Cambridge.
Please cite as “Tyndall2076,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on