Royal Institution of Great Britain | 7th June
My Dear Playfair
Thanks for your letter,3 and the same ten times over for your kind offer. It would delight me to lecture at Edinburgh, but it is out of the question. I am here in a net which cannot be broken.
In a few days I hope to have the pleasure (& I hope she will grant it to me) of sending to Mrs. Playfair4 a copy of my book5 from which she will learn all that I have to say upon glaciers—There is a type of romance in my relationship to Edinburgh. I little thought 10 years ago when I read my first paper there6 that this interval would give me so many kind friends there.
I am very weary at present—giddy & confused—when I get my head in order I will ponder on your ice theory.7 I am now aiming to get off to the lakes of Killarny8 in a few days.
Believe me dear Playfair | most sinc[ere]ly yours | John Tyndall
Playfair Letters - 1 - 671
Lyon Playfair: Lyon Playfair (1818–98), a Scottish chemist and politician. Playfair worked in Justus von Liebig’s laboratory in Giessen (1839–41). From 1842, he was Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Manchester Institution, and from 1845, chemist to the Geological Survey of Great Britain and professor of chemistry at the School of Mines in London. In 1853 Playfair was appointed secretary for science in the Department of Science and Art. In this position, he attempted to establish a national system of science education. Playfair maintained a close relationship with the Royal family and especially Albert, the Prince Consort, and for a time educated the Queen’s sons Albert and Alfred. In 1858, he became Professor of Chemistry at Edinburgh University (ODNB).
[1864]: the date on this letter is from Playfair’s record-keeping system.
your letter: letter missing.
Mrs. Playfair: Jean Ann Playfair (née Millington, 1834–77), married in 1857. She was Playfair’s second of three wives (L. G. Pine (ed), The New Extinct Peerage 1884–1971: Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages with Genealogies and Arms (London: Heraldry Today, 1972), p. 219).
my book: Glaciers of the Alps.
my first paper there: Tyndall read his first paper at the Edinburgh meeting of the BAAS in 1850: J. Tyndall, ‘On the Magneto-Optical Properties of Crystals’, Brit. Assoc. Report 1850, p. 23 (no abstract was provided).
your ice theory: Playfair’s letter to Tyndall is missing, and thus anything he may have written about ice. In two previous letters in 1860, however, Playfair shared with Tyndall his view about the differences between ice and water as chemical bodies (see letters 1702 and 1719, Tyndall Correspondence, vol. 7).
Killarny: Killarney, a town in Country Kerry, in southwest Ireland.
Please cite as “Tyndall2103,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on