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John
Tyndall - unsung hero
John
Tyndall (1820-1893) was born in the Garrison House, Leighlinbridge,
Co. Carlow and he received his early education in Carlow before
going to work for the Ordnance Survey, first in Ireland and later
in England. While he worked he attended lectures at the local Mechanics
Institute, where members of the working class could receive basic
instruction in the sciences. In 1843 he was dismissed from the survey
for protesting the working conditions of the Irish labourers. He
moved on to work as a surveyor for the railroad industry. In 1847
he became a teacher at Edmundson School, Queenwood College, in Hampshire,
where one of the first teaching laboratories in Britain was set
up. There he became interested in the teaching of practical science
and engineering.

In
1848 Tyndall went to Marburg University in Germany to carry out
his Ph.D. studies. At that time Ph.D. degrees had only just been
introduced and the German Universities were then world leaders in
scientific research training. Tyndall studied Chemistry, Mathematics
and Physics. He completed his degree in two years and went on to
do research in Berlin, where he mingled with many of the great German
scientists of that time.
He
returned to Britain in 1851 but was unable to find a university
position due to his unconventional education and his working class
background. Finally in 1853, after a brilliant lecturing performance
he was appointed professor of natural philosophy at the Royal Institution
in London. There he developed his talents for lecturing and research
and he took over from Michael Faraday as Superintendent in 1867.
From
his time spent in Germany, Tyndall had an interest in the behaviour
of crystals in a magnetic field. This led him to study the compression
of crystal substances. From this he took an interest in glaciers
and was a pioneer in the sport of mountaineering. He also studied
solar heat and radiation. He was particularly interested in the
interaction of heat, light and atmospheric gases and he made a study
of the scattering of light by particles in the atmosphere. In fact,
it was Tyndall who first explained that the sky is blue because
the different wavelengths of sunlight are scattered to different
degrees by the atmosphere. Having established that there were dust
particles in the air, he showed that the air contained living microorganisms.
He was an early advocate of Pasteur's germ theory of disease.
His
scientific brilliance is highlighted by the number of scientific
phenomena named after him, including the Tyndall effect, the Tyndall
cone, Tyndall scattering, Tyndallisation and the Tyndallo-meter.
Tyndall was one of the first people to coin the term "physicist"
to differentiate himself from the traditional "natural philosopher".
He
also wrote for newspapers and magazines and helped to found the
now famous scientific journal Nature in 1869. Tyndall grew famous
for both his theatrical style of lecturing and his public battle
with famous figures. Tyndall condemned the attitude of the catholic
hierarchy in Ireland to Science and proposed that science and reason,
rather than faith are the only acceptable guides to truth. Tyndall
spent much of his free time at his house in the Alps.
Eventually
he died from an overdose of chloral hydrate administered in error
by his wife at the age of seventy-three!
As a researcher, an educator, a lecturer and a controversialist,
he played a major role in both the professionalism and popularisation
of science.
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