Scientific Worthies

Abstract

IV.—JOHN TYNDALL

IN the valleys of Gloucestershire may still be seen a few l clothiers7 mills, the residue of a once extensive industry. Almost exactly two centuries ago some members of the Tyndall family inhabiting these valleys, and engaged for the most part in this industry, crossed over to the opposite coast of Ireland. This fact, the date of which is fixed by Mr. Greenfield, coupled with family tradition, points to I the origin of Prof. Tyndall. In Ireland the Tyndalls I fared variously, dividing themselves into magistrates, j aldermen, medical men, farmers, and tradesmen. To| the last, and indeed to the poorest of the last, Prof. Tyndall's father belonged. He was a man of singular force of intellect and independence of character, and he kept his son at school until his nineteenth year. In I accordance with transmitted family habit, Prof. Tyndall, when young, was exercised in all the subtleties of the| controversy between Protestantism and Catholicism. In| 1839 he quitted school to join a division of the Ordnance Survey, with which he remained connected for nearly five years. His excellent chief, now his intimate friend, General George Wynne, R.E., gave him an opportunity 1 of mastering all the details of the survey, in the office and| in the field. For four years subsequently he was engaged on 1 railway work; and while thus employed met Mr.? irst, who is now the Director of Studies in the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, who afterwards joined him in Marburg, and 1 with whom his relations are more those of a brother than a friend. In 1847, with a view to self-improvement, he accepted a post in Queenwood College, Hampshire, where j Dr. Frankland was chemist; and in 1848 they went j together to the University of Marburg, Hesse Cassel. I Bunsen and others had rendered the little University cele-| brated; and to Bunsen, whose lectures he attended and i in whose laboratory he worked, Prof. Tyndall owes obli- 1 gations never to be forgotten. He found in Germany a \ second home. With Stegmann he studied mathematics; he heard Gerling lecture on physics, and subsequently Knoblauch, who, preceded by a distinguished reputation, \ and accompanied by a choice collection of instruments,| came to Marburg as Extraordinary Professor when Tyndall was there. Prof. Knoblauch, in conjunction I with whom Tyndall subsequently conducted various in-| quiries on diamagnetism, supports his old friend and pupil in Belfast; Wiedemann is also there, and Bunsen would have been there if he could. Tyndall subsequently worked in the laboratory of Prof. Magnus in Berlin. In 1851 he accompanied Prof. Huxley to the meeting of the| British Association at Ipswich, and thus commenced a friendship which has never faltered to the present hour. Dr. Bence Jones heard of Tyndall in Berlin, and, always alert in the promotion of science and in aiding those who pursued it, had him invited in 1853 to give a Friday evening lecture at the Royal Institution. Soon afterwards, on the proposal of Faraday, Tyndall was appointed Professor of Physics in the Institution, where he still remains.