Dear Tyndall,—Viewing your inquiry simply as an administrative question, Dr. Akin’s Report on the Transmutation of Spectral Rays2 in the British Association Reports for 1863 indicated a very wide field of experimental researches. In aid of these the General Committee made a grant of £45 to Mr. Griffith3 and himself. A part of this grant was expended in apparatus to be employed by those gentlemen in the spring or early summer of 1864, the results of which were designed by Dr. Akin to be presented by himself to the Meeting of the British Association at Bath in the September of that year. For this purpose Dr. Akin went to Oxford to join Mr. Griffith, but from some unexplained cause their purpose was frustrated, and 1864 passed without the experiments being made. The grant, however, did not lapse, as part of it had been expended in apparatus, which it appears to be still be Dr. Akin’s intention to employ (though not at Oxford where there is sunshine, or in London where there is no sunshine suitable for the purpose). Such, so far as I can collect them is a statement of the facts.
The object of the British Association in making such grants is to aid the progress of science, by enabling those, who may be so disposed, to make experiments, but by no means to retard its progress by discouraging others from approaching the same ground.4 One cannot read, I think, Dr. Akin’s Report in 1863 without the impression that there is work enough in the subject for a dozen at least of active experiments. He may have had an advantage (and properly used it is a great one) in mediating longer than others on the laurels that may be gathered, but he who desires to be foremost in the field must be ‘prompt in action’ where there are so many competitors.
Always truly yours, | Edward Sabine
J. Tyndall, ‘On the History of Calorescence’, Phil. Mag., 29 (1865), pp. 218–31, on p. 222
[before 20 December 1864]: Tyndall dated this letter to late December, and it most likely was written before Tyndall’s letter to William Francis (2198). This letter refers to the ongoing dispute between Tyndall and C. K. Akin. For further comment and context see the introductory essay to this volume, and letters 1925, 2075, 2076, 2079, 2114, 2162, 2167, 2168, 2170, 2173, 2182, 2183, 2190, 2198, 2201, 2204, 2208, and 2214. Hirst noted in his journal entry for 25 December 1864 that Tyndall left London with Huxley and Lubbock for a hiking tour in Derbyshire on 20 December (Brock and Macleod, Hirst Journals, p. 1711).
Report on the Transmutation of Spectral Rays: C. K. Akin, ‘On the Transmutation of Spectral Rays’, Brit. Assoc. Report 1863, pp. 93–105.
Mr. Griffith: see letter 2165, n. 6.
but by no means to retard its progress… the same ground: Akin had apparently suggested to Tyndall that the grant from the BAAS gave him exclusive privileges in researching the subject of ray transmutation. See also the letter 2208 from William Armstrong.
Please cite as “Tyndall2197,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on