The morning call., 1893-12-05

tial volume of the International sci
!. ent6c series. did much to promote the
pornlarity which tits collection of valu-
.abaa works at once achieved and has since
maintained. he was equally at home In
ali fields Aof inquiy which be thought
were calculated TO promote the progress of
mankind. Hencs,Nae fell foul Of the theo-
.:]ogians. whose cherished faiths he rejected
for lack of positive proof. Once he pro-
: posed an experiment TO test the efficacy of
prayer, but his idea was rejected
by :. the churchmen to whom it was
: addressed, on the ground that it would be
sacrilegious to measure the operations of
divine providence by the rules of human
science. His death was not unexpected,
his serious illness having been reporte
some time since.
A few facts regarding his busy life will
show how earnestly he was devoted to his
se1f-imposed task of increasing the sum of
human knowledge.
i: John Tyndall was born August 81, 1920.
in the village of Leighlin Bridge. near
Carlow. in Ireland. His parents were in
= very modest circumstances, but they gave
: him good, sound English education. At
3 the age of 10 he joined in the capacity of a
''clvil assistant" a division of the Ord
nance Survey, which was stationed in bis
> native town.
% Ia 1874 he was engaged by firm in
Manchester, and for about three years he
was employed in engineering operations
in connection with railways. In 1647 he
accepted an appointment as teacher in
Queenswood College in Hampshire. a new
institution devoted to agricGturists and
engineers.
ha
Frankland, who was resident chemist 10
= the college, and there be began those
original investigations which placed him
. in the front rank among the explorers of
science. In 1S4S the two friends Quilted
England together. and repaired to the
university Of Marburg, in Hesse- Cassel,
where they studied under Bunsen and
other eminent professors.
Afterward Mr.. TYndalI prosecuted his
research in the laboratory of Magnus in
Berlin. He conducted investigations on
the. phenomena of diamagnetism and on
j.. the polarity of diamagnetic force, includ-
ing researches on the magneto-optic prop
critics of crystals and the relation of mag
netism and diamagnetism to molecular
arrangement. He published a volume on
these subjects.
ho W IDB 1Ools III 1000,
having been previously elected Fellow of
the Royal Society, he was chosen profess
sor of the Royal Institution of Great
Britain and succeeded the celebrated Far
aday as superintendent. The publication
OF an essay on the cleavage of slate rocks
was the cause of his joining bis friend.
Professor Huxley. in visit to the glaciers
OF Switzerland in 1856. and they afterward
punished joint paper on the structure
and motion of glaciers
he returned to Switzerland in 1857, 1858
ana 1862 twice in the latter year. He
reached Ctamouni on Christmas night,
Io55' through deep snow, and Two days
a1terward succeeded in attaining the
Montanyert, where he remained nearly
three days, for part amid binding snow,
and determined the winter motion of the
MeI de Glace.
I'D io59 he commenced his researches on
radiant heat. which disclosed relations
previously unthought of between this
!. agent and the gaseous form of matter.
Numerous memoirs published in the
: philosophical Transactions" ara devoted
to this subject.
Professor Tyndall was Rumford med
aiist of the Royal Society and a
member of various societies: he was
made LII d. of Cambridge in 1891
and LID. Of Edinburgh In 1886.