BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



he remained two years. The first of 

 the three investigations just alluded to 

 was carried out at Queenwood, as was 

 also a series of experiments on "The 

 Conduction of Heat through Wood." 1 

 On June 3rd, 1852, Tyndall was elected 

 fellow of the Royal Society. 



While at Queenwood he applied for 

 several positions which offered a wider 

 scope for his abilities. On his way to 

 Ipswich in 1851 he had made the 

 acquaintance of T. H. Huxley, and a 

 warm and enduring friendship resulted. 

 They made joint applications for the 

 chairs respectively of natural history 

 'and physics then vacant at Toronto; 

 but, in spite of high testimonials, they 

 were unsuccessful. They also failed 

 in candidatures for chairs in the newly- 

 founded university of Sydney, New 

 South Wales. Meanwhile, soon after 

 Tyndall's departure from Berlin, Dr. 

 Henry Bence Jones visited that city, 

 and, hearing much of Tyndall's labours 

 and personality, caused him to be 

 invited to give a Friday evening lecture 

 at the Royal Institution. The lecture, 

 "Onthe Influence of Material Aggregation 

 upon the Manifestations of Force," 2 was 

 delivered on February nth, 1853. It 

 produced an extraordinary impression, 

 and Tyndall, hitherto known only among 

 physicists, became famous beyond the 

 limits of scientific society. In May, 1853, 

 he was unanimously chosen as professor 

 of natural philosophy in the Royal 

 Institution. The appointment had the 

 special charm of making him the colleague 

 of Faraday. Seldom have two men 

 worked together so harmoniously as did 

 Faraday and Tyndall during the years 

 that followed. Their relationship from 



1 See " Molecular Influences," Phil. Trans., 

 January, 1853. 



a Roy. Inst. Proc., i. 185. 



first to last resembled that of father and 

 son. Tyndall's Faraday as a Discoverer 

 bears striking testimony to their attach- 

 ment. Other sketches of Faraday by 

 Tyndall are in his Fragments of Science 

 and in the life of Faraday in the 

 Dictionary of National Biography. 



Tyndall's career was now definitely 

 marked out. To the end of his active 

 life his^ best energies were devoted to the 

 service of the Royal Institution. In 

 1867, when Faraday died, Tyndall suc- 

 ceeded him in his position as superin- 

 tendent of the Institution. On his own 

 retirement in the autumn of 1887 he 

 was elected honorary professor. 



In 1854, after attending the British 

 Association meeting at Liverpool, Tyndall 

 visited the slate quarries of Penrhyn. 

 His familiarity with the effects of pres- 

 sure upon the structure of crystals led 

 him to give special attention to the 

 problem of slaty cleavage. By careful 

 observation and experiments with white 

 wax and many other substances which 

 develop cleavage in planes perpendicular 

 to pressure, he satisfied himself that 

 pressure alone was sufficient to produce 

 the cleavage of slate rocks. On June 6th, 

 1856, he lectured on the subject at the 

 Royal Institution. 1 Huxley, who was 

 present, suggested afterwards that the 

 same cause might possibly explain the 

 laminated structure of glacier ice recently 

 described in Forbes's Travels in the 

 Alps. The friends agreed to take a 

 holiday and inspect the glaciers together. 

 The results of the observations made 

 during this and two subsequent visits to 

 Switzerland are given in Tyndall's classi- 

 cal work, The Glaciers of the Alps 

 (see p. 12). The original memoirs are 

 in the Philosophical Transactions for 



1 Sec appendix to Glaciers of the Alps. 



