Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-01-10

THE LATE PROFESSOR TYNDALL.
report of the death of Professor Tyndall
had been published. and this American lit
terateur, musing for a few moments, at
last said:
THE English speaking race has just
lost the man who has pointed the way tc
the most popular and successful writing,
as believe, of the immediate future. Pro
fessor Tyndall not only did as much if no;
more than any one man to make scienct
popular, and to cause scientific subjects ne
| longer to be regarded with dread by those
who are fond of light reading, but he made
of science literature, and might almost
say of literature new science. Before his
time Faraday, Sir William Thompson
who, after all, was contemporaneous with
him-and some of the greater English
scientists had attracted to their lectures
and to their writings considerable num-
ber but these We're for the most part per
sons seeking scientific instruction. Hum
boldt had indicated what might be done
with scientific subjects popularity treated
and Hugh Miller in his enchanting work,
old Red Sandstone-a book which de-
serves to be read far more nowadays than
it is--had shown the English people that it
| was possible to write even of such flinty
things as rocks cntertainingly.
But after all it remained for Tyndall to
charm vast audiences with his lectures,
written in such beautiful style that they
were understood by those who were I'm
educated, while enjoyed by persons of cul
| tivation. Proctor followed the hint that
Tyndalfs lectures furnished by writing and
speaking upon astronomy most successfully
pecuniarily. But astronomy, unlike most
other sciences, has always appealed strong
ly to the imagination even of rude and say
age peoples. So l have been inclined to
think watching the development OF liter
airy tastes among the great masses, that the
time Is near at hand when there will arts,
! great writer who will do for scientific lit
erature what for instance, Fielding, Scott
| and Dickens did for tales and romances."
The manager of one of the lecture bureaus
in New York is reported to have said re
Gently that if Professor Tyndall had been
| willing to sign a contract to deliver a series
or two series of lectures in the United States.
extending perhaps for period of six
months, he would have been able to take
back to England with him more money than
any English reader, excepting possibly Dick
| ems, or than any English actor or singer,
| with the exception possibly OF Henry Irving
and Patti. He had several propositions
from American publishers to write u book
| upon any scientific subject that he might
| choose, and the terms offered him were
probably larger than those ever mentioned
in any other contract made with an English
writer.
Nicola Tesla discovered the extraordina.
ry popular interest in science, and especial
ly the strange and weird manifestations of
- ho Il ali -, I
in which he explained and then illustrat-
ed by experiments his extraordinary dis
covery that by a certain development of the
electric current he was able to transmit it
from one point to another without any 9TH
er medium than the ether which is the nat
ural medium of electricity, and standing in
the middle of room through which such
| current was passing, holding up an mean
descent lamp, it was illuminated.
Tesla might have repeated that lecture
in every considerable city in the United
States, with a guarantee from lecture man
ayers of u large sum of morey for each ap-
peara nee, and he has received propositions
from Editors of magazines and publishers
for writing both short essays and longer
works, for wbic.: he could have been paid
at his own price. He is, however, very
busy in the commercial development OF his
discoveries, so that he felt that he could
not spare the time, since if he succeeds in
this work he will have made for himself an
enormous fortune.
If Edison had consented to accept "a prop
| osition made to him by a lecture manager,
he might have made as much as $50, 900 for
a short series of lectures to be delivered in
some of the larger cities of the United
States, and Edison would have furnished
not only the interest which attached to his
personality and the value which attends
anything which he might say upon scien-
tific matters, but would have revealed Il
splendid, although not polished, English
style. He writes with force, nervous vigor,
using strong idioms, but writes very clear
! ly. Edison might too, have received many
thousands of dollars for purely literary
| work and has been beset for the past two
years for contributions, but he, too. has no
time for such pursuit.
The popular interest in science romantic
ally treated was illustrated by work re-
Gently completed by Flammarion, the IA
nous French astronomer. His book was not
quite SO well received in this country, since
the subject, the end of the world as viewed
from the possibility of science, was not a
pleasant one. But it was well received in
England, and in France commanded almost
as much attention and excitement as did
some of the romances of Alexandra Dumas
when they were being published. The
next famous writer, and one who will re-
ceive great fortune, will be undoubtedly
man who can make scientific discoveries
serve literary capacity.
A ruby Of the best quality and more