Queenwood,1 Stockbridge, Hants.2 | Nov, 18th, 1864.
My dear Tyndall
On the 13th of December3 1863 I had a conversation with you on the refrangibility of heat emitted from different sources. You then described to me the beautiful experiments which you had made some time previously on the nature of heat radiated from hydrogen, carbonic oxide and other flames, having only one product of combustion, and the absorption of these kinds of heat by various gases and vapours. We conversed on the experiments of Prof Stokes, and on the possible conversion of long undulations into short ones.
You then proceeded to explain to me that the glowing of a platinum spiral in a hydrogen flame was an instance of such a change of period4
Yours very Truly | H. Debus.
RI MS JT/1/TYP/7/2399
LT Typescript Only
Queenwood: see letter 2051, n. 4.
Hants.: abbreviation for Hampshire.
On the 13th of December: in this letter Debus was clearly responding to a request from Tyndall for his recollection of the sequence of events regarding those of his experiments that were the subject of his dispute with the Hungarian physicist C. K. Akin. Tyndall sent it back to him as an enclosure with letter 2183, suggesting changes that he would like to make for the version he intended to publish. Note: the original handwritten letter is missing, and the text which appears here is the amended text which Tyndall enclosed back to Debus with his letter, 2183. For further discussion of the priority dispute between Tyndall and Akin, see letters 1925, 2075, 2076, 2079, 2114, 2162, 2167, 2168, 2170, 2173, 2183, 2190, 2197, 2198, 2201, 2204, 2208, 2214, the introductory essay for this volume and letters in the forthcoming ninth volume of The Correspondence of John Tyndall.
You then proceeded… of such a change of period: this sentence is clearly that which Tyndall substituted for a longer explanation than Debus had originally supplied. As noted above, the original handwritten version of this letter is missing.
Please cite as “Tyndall2182,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on