Halle, | 7 Jan 65
My dear friend,
You have made me a great and unexpected pleasure by the kindness in which you have thought of me.
I was occupied in my working-room preparing in the vacation-time a memoir on my last experiments for Poggendorff’s Annals,1 when on the Sylvester evening2 your sending3 arrived. The unusual form of it made me suppose a diploma or something of that kind and my surprise was great, seeing by rolling down the paper the features of my dear old friend. All happy remembrances, especially from that time which we had spent together also at Christmas and New year in Marburg,4 passed before my memory and <hereafter HW manuscript source> I included into my best wishes at the beginning of this year my kind friend now in London. Take with these wishes my best thanks for the joy you have prepared to me by sending your “sprechendes”5 and “wohlgelungenes”6 portrait.
I have had many opportunities last time to hear of you by my friends who had seen you at the Swiss-Association7 in Zurich. First Dr Mayer of Heilbronn sent me your kind regards. Prof. Poggendorff, all had seen you, and your toast on the “Traumeierei”8 of sciences has run through all these circles.
It is a pity that you in your journey on the Continent never come in our neighbourhood; I would be very happy if you once would call upon me in Halle. We could not leave it the whole last summer, first on account of the birth of a little boy, called George, than for the sickness of Mrs Knoblauch9 and our three elder sons who got the “Scharlachfieber”10 at the same time.
Is our friend Hirst living at present in London or in England? He was kind enough to send a paper to the “naturforschende Gesellschaft”11 and to me. But, being not aware of his actual abode and address, we were not able to thank him. I beg you to remember me kindly to our common friend.
I must conclude my letter with a very trist notice which I just receive from Berlin, that of the decease of our dear Mistress Poggendorff.12 She died on the 5th January by an inflammation of the lungs. We are all very sorry for this hard fate on our friend.13
With my best wishes for you, my dear Tyndall, I remain | ever yours | most faithfully | Herm. Knoblauch
RI MS JT/1/K/24
RI MS JT/1/TYP/7/2506–7
Poggendorff’s Annals: possibly H. Knoblauch, ‘Ueber die Diffusion der Wärmestrahlen’, Annalen der Physik und Chemie, 125 (1865), pp. 1–37.
Sylvester evening: the German celebration of New Year’s Eve, 31 December.
your sending: letter missing.
Marburg: see letter 2044, n. 6.
“sprechendes”: expressive (German).
“wohlgelungenes”: well-executed (German).
Swiss-Association: see letter 2108, n. 3.
“Traumeierei”: musings (German).
Mrs Knoblauch: see letter 2044, n. 5.
“Scharlachfieber”: scarlet fever (German).
“naturforschende Gesellschaft”: Society of Natural Researchers.
our dear Mistress Poggendorff: Charlotte Eleonore Poggendorff, who died on 5 January 1865 due to inflammation of the lungs (Johann Christian Poggendorff: Leichenrede von Emil Frommel, Hof- und Garnison-Prediger in Berlin. Nebst eigenhändigen Lebensnachrichten, Reden und Briefen (Berlin: Dümmler, 1877), p. 12).
our friend: Johann Christian Poggendorff.
Please cite as “Tyndall2212,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on