BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 1 



JOHN TYNDALL, natural philosopher, 

 son of John Tyndall and his wife Sarah 

 (Macassey), was born at Leighlin Bridge, 

 co. Carlow, Ireland, on August 2nd, 

 1820. The Tyndalls, who claimed rela- 

 tionship with the family of William 

 Tyndale the martyr, had crossed from 

 Gloucestershire to Ireland in the seven- 

 teenth century. The elder John Tyndall, 

 son of a small landowner, although poor, 

 was a man of superior intellect, and he 

 gave his son the best education which 

 his circumstances could afford. At the 

 local national school young Tyndall 

 acquired a thorough knowledge of 

 elementary mathematics, which quali- 

 fied him to enter as civil assistant 

 (in 1839) the ordnance survey of Ireland. 

 In 1842 he was selected, as one of the 

 best draughtsmen in his department, for 

 employment on the English survey. 

 While quartered at Preston in Lanca- 

 shire he joined the mechanics' institute, 

 and attended its lectures. He was at 

 this time much impressed by Carlyle's 

 Past and Present, and to the stimula- 

 ting influence of Carlyle's works was in 

 part due his later resolve to follow a 

 scientific career. On quitting the survey 

 Tyndall was employed for three years as 

 a railway engineer. 



In 1847 ne accepted an offer from 

 George Edmondson, principal of Queen- 

 wood College, Hampshire, to join the 

 college staff as teacher of mathematics 



and surveying. Mr. (afterwards Sir 

 Edward) Frankland was lecturer on 

 chemistry, and the two young men 

 agreed respectively to instruct each other 

 in chemistry and mathematics. But 

 Queenwood did not yield all the oppor- 

 tunities they wished for, and they 

 presently resolved to take advantage of 

 the excellent instruction to be enjoyed 

 at the university of Marburg in Hesse- 

 Cassel. The decision was for Tyndall a 

 momentous one. He had nothing but 

 his own work and slender savings to 

 depend on, and his friends thought him 

 mad for abandoning the brilliant possi- 

 bilities then open to a railway engineer. . 



In October, 1848, Tyndall and Frank- 

 land settled at Marburg. Tyndall at- 

 tended Bunsen's lectures on experimental 

 and practical chemistry, and studied 

 mathematics and physics in the classes 

 and laboratories of Stegmann, Gerling, 

 and Knoblauch. By intense application 

 he accomplished in less than two years 

 the work usually extended over three, 

 and thus became doctor of philosophy 

 early in 1850. Thenceforward he was 

 free to devote himself entirely to original 

 research. 



His first scientific paper was a mathe- 

 matical essay on screw surfaces " Die 

 Schraubenflache mit geneigter Erzeu- 

 gungslinie und die Bedingungen des 

 Gleichgewichts fiir solche Schrauben "- 

 which formed his inaugural dissertation 



1 This memoir is reprinted with the consent of Messrs. Smith, Elder, & Co., given on behalf of 

 the proprietor of The Dictionary of National Biography. 



