21st Nov. 1864
My dear Sir
A large amount of patient labour is invested in the paper of Sir William Snow Harris1 referred to me by the Council. Considerable skill in the mention and use of apparatus is moreover manifested. On account of these and the superior qualities evidenced in the paper, it would give me a sincere pleasure to be able to recommend it for publication in the Philosophical Transactions.
It is a source of regret to me that I am not able to do so. I am, however, not satisfied with the reasoning and the experiments of the author. It appears to me that he is mistaken in his interpretation of some of the fundamental laws of electricity, and that the mistake extends to the experimental arrangements, by which he proposes to demonstrate these laws
I should however be extremely sorry if the Council attached too much weight to my opinion on this matter: and, I trust, if the second referee should differ from me in opinion and recommend the publication of the paper, that the council will lean to his decision rather than to mine. The results, considered empirically, may be useful, and the apparatus is capable of interesting applications.
Yours very truly | John Tyndall
Prof Stokes | Sec. R.S. &. &.
Report for Sir W. S. Harris’s paper On the laws & operation of Electrical Force.
1864 | Harris | by Tyndall
RS RR/5/99 Tyndall 21 November 1864
the paper of Sir William Snow Harris: Harris’s paper was not published in the Phil. Trans., but an abstract had been published earlier in 1864 in the RS’s proceedings: W. S. Harris, ‘Further Inquiries concerning the Laws and Operation of Electrical Force’, Roy. Soc. Proc., 13 (1864), pp. 364–75. This was also published as: W. S. Harris, ‘Further Inquiries concerning the Laws and Operation of Electrical Force’, Phil. Mag., 29 (1865), pp. 65–75.
Please cite as “Tyndall2185,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on