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Rising from a humble background in rural southern Ireland, John Tyndall became one of the foremost physicists, communicators of science, and polemicists in mid-Victorian Britain. In science, he is known for his important work in meteorology, climate science, magnetism, acoustics, and bacteriology. His discoveries include the physical basis of the warming of the Earth's atmosphere (the basis of the greenhouse effect), and establishing why the sky is blue. But he was also a leading communicator of science, drawing great crowds to his lectures at the Royal Institution, while also playing an active role in the Royal Society.
Tyndall moved in the highest social and intellectual circles. A friend of Tennyson and Carlyle, as well as Michael Faraday and Thomas Huxley, Tyndall was one of the most visible advocates of a scientific world view as tensions grew between developing scientific knowledge and theology. He was an active and often controversial commentator, through letters, essays, speeches, and debates, on the scientific, political, and social issues of the day, with strongly stated views on Ireland, religion, race, and the role of women. Widely read in America, his lecture tour there in 1872-73 was a great success.
Roland Jackson paints a picture of an individual at the heart of Victorian science and society. He also describes Tyndall's importance as a pioneering mountaineer in what has become known as the Golden Age of Alpinism. Among other feats, Tyndall was the first to traverse the Matterhorn. He presents Tyndall as a complex personality, full of contrasts, with his intense sense of duty, his deep love of poetry, his generosity to friends and his combativeness, his persistent ill-health alongside great physical stamina driving him to his mountaineering feats. Drawing on Tyndall's letters and journals for this first major biography of Tyndall since 1945, Jackson explores the legacy of a man who aroused strong opinions, strong loyalties, and strong enmities throughout his life.
List of contents
- List of Plates
- A note on words
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I (c.1822-1850) From Carlow to Manburg
- Introduction
- 1: Irish Beginnings (c. 1822-1844)
- 2: Railway Mania (1844-1847)
- 3: Queenwood College (1847-1848)
- 4: Marburg (1848-1850)
- Part II (1850-1860) Breaking In
- 5: Making a Name (1850-1853)
- 6: Clash of Theories (1854-1856)
- 7: Glacial Explorations (1856-1857)
- 8: Storms over Glaciers (1858-1860)
- Part III (1860-1870) The Peak Years
- 9: Radiant Heat (1859-1862)
- 10: Heated Exchanges (1862-1865)
- 11: The X-Club (1864-1866)
- 12: Eyre Affair and Death of Faraday (1866-1868)
- 13: Prayer, Miracles, Metaphysics, and Spirits (1865-1880)
- 14: Mountaineering in the 1860s (1860-1868)
- 15: Clouds of Imagination (1868-1870)
- Part IV (1870-1880) Establishment Figure
- 16: Dust and Disease (1870-1872)
- 17: Government Service and Education (1871-1892)
- 18: America (1872-1873)
- 19: Fogs and Glaciers (1873)
- 20: The Belfast Address (1873-1875)
- 21: Floating Matter of the Air (1875-1876)
- 22: Contamination (1876-1878)
- 23: Electric lights and Mining Accidents (1879-1886)
- Part V (1880-1893) Political Affairs
- 24: Hindhead (1880-1883)
- 25: Rainbows and Lighthouses (1883-1885)
- 26: The Final Years (1886-1893)
- Epilogue
- Map of the Alps, showing many of the places visited by John Tyndall
- Publisher's Acknowledgements
- Picture Captions and Credits
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
About the author
Roland Jackson is a historian of science, with interests also in contemporary science and innovation policy, and in bioethics. His recent posts include: Head of the Science Museum, London; Chief Executive of the British Science Association; and Executive Chair of Sciencewise. He is a General Editor of The Correspondence of John Tyndall, being published in 19 volumes by the Royal Institution.
Summary
John Tyndall was a leading scientific figure in Victorian Britain, who established the physical basis of the greenhouse effect, and why the sky is blue. This rich biography describes the colourful life and achievements of this brilliant communicator, physicist, and mountaineer, who ascended from humble beginnings to the heart of Victorian society.
Additional text
Jackson's book is as comprehensive as it is overdue ... Jackson at once recounts the important events of Tyndall's life and uses Tyndall himself to build a richly textured picture of the social and scientific world in which he lived. The book favours a rigorous attention to detail ... Jackson's impressive facility with the scientific and political contexts of Tyndall's late-nineteenth-century world enables him to weave together a series of themes that define both the man and the period, providing a useful and comprehensive launching pad for a wide variety of forays in to the social and scientific worlds of Victorian England.
Report
Mr. Jackson amasses a wealth of detail to give a fuller picture of this extraordinary man... [He] has done a great service in his detailed and careful presentation of John Tyndall's life at a time when science is under attack, neglected and misunderstood, especially by those in government. Peter Pesic, Wall Street Journal
