Read more
Physicist John Tyndall's collected contributions on radiant heat to various journals over many years, published in 1872 with helpful summaries.
List of contents
Preface; Analysis of memoir 1; 1. On the absorption and radiation of heat by gases and vapours, and on the physical connexion of radiation, absorption, and conduction; Analysis of memoir 2; 2. Further researches on the absorption and radiation of heat by gaseous matter; Analysis of memoir 3; 3. On the relation of radiant heat to aqueous vapour; Analysis of memoir 4; 4. On the passage of radiant heat through dry and humid air; Analysis of memoir 5; 5. On the absorption and radiation of heat by gaseous and liquid matter; Analysis of memoir 6; 6. Contributions to molecular physics; Analysis of memoir 7; 7. On luminous and obscure radiation; Analysis of memoir 8; 8. On calorescence, or the transmutation of heat rays; Analysis of memoir 9; 9. On the influence of colour and mechanical condition on radiant heat; Analysis of memoir 10; 10. On the action of rays of high refrangibility upon gaseous matter; Analysis of memoir 11; 11. Aqueous vapour: discussion resumed; 12. Recent researches on radiant heat; 13. On radiation through the Earth's atmosphere; 14. On a new series of chemical reactions produced by light; 15. On the blue colour of the sky, the polarization of sky-light, and on the polarization of light by cloudy matter generally; 16. On cometary theory; 17. On the formation and phenomena of clouds.
About the author
John Tyndall FRS was an important 19th-century Irish physicist. His scientific prominence developed in the 1850s as a result of his research into diamagnetism. Later, he produced discoveries in the fields of infrared radiation and air physical characteristics, establishing the link between atmospheric CO2 and what is now known as the greenhouse effect in 1859. Tyndall also authored over a dozen science books that introduced a large number of people to cutting-edge 19th-century experimental physics. From 1853 to 1887, he taught physics at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in London. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1868. Tyndall was born at Leighlinbridge, Co. Carlow, Ireland. His father was a local police constable, descended from Gloucestershire emigrants who arrived in southeast Ireland around 1670. Tyndall attended the local schools (Ballinabranna Primary School) in County Carlow until his late teens and was most likely an assistant teacher near the conclusion of his tenure there. Technical drawing and mathematics were particularly important subjects in school, with some applications to land surveying. In his late teens, he was engaged as a draftsman by the Ordnance Survey of Ireland in 1839, and he later went to the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain in 1842.
Summary
Professor of natural philosophy for the Royal Institution between 1853 and 1887, the physicist John Tyndall (1820–93) passionately sought to share scientific understanding with the Victorian public. Reissued here are his collected contributions on radiant heat to various journals over many years, published in 1872 with helpful summaries.
