EXPERIENCES OF PROFESSOR TYNDALL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7222, 10 January 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

EXPERIENCES OF PROFESSOR TYNDALL.

Tub inaugural address of the sixty-second session of the Birkbeck Literary and Scientific Institution was delivered on 23rd October in the now building, Chancery Lane, London, by Professor Tyndall. He said he was desired to speak of the experiences of his own life. In the days of his youth he directly derived profit from the great educational movement of Dr. Birkbeck. About 1842 ho was a member of the Preston Mechanics' Institution, and, doubtless, the instruction he then received entered into the texture of his mind, and nfluenced him in after lif*. Quitting ! school in 1839, hej oined a division of the Ordnance Survey, which he left four years Afterwards, his salary then being a little under 20s a week, and he often wondered since at the amount of genuine happiness which a young fellow of regular habits, not caring for either pipe or mug, might extract from pay like that. Soon came the mad time of the railway mania, when he was able to turn to some account the knowledge he had gained upon the Ordnance Survey. In Staffordshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, Durham, and Yorkshire more especially the last—ho was in the thick of too fray. It was a time of terrible toil. The day's work in the field usually began and ended with the day's light, while frequently in the office, and more especially as the awful 30th ot November—the latest date at which plans and sections of projected lines could be deposited at the Board of Trade —drew near, there was little difference between day and night, every hour of the twenty-four being absorbed in the work of preparation. Strong men were broken down by the strain and labour of that arduous time. Many pushed through, and were still amongst us iu robust vigour, but some collapsed, while others retired with large fortunes, but with intellects so shattered that, instead of taking their places in tho front rank of English statesmen, as their abilities entitled them to do, they nought rest for their brains in the quiet lives of country gentlemen. In his own modest sphere he well remembered the refreshment he occasionally derived fror/>. five minutes' sleep on a deal table, with Babbage and Callet's Logarithms under his head lor a pillow. It wa i a time of mad unrest and downright monomania. When railway work slackened, he accepted in 1547 a post as master in Queenwood College, Hampshire, where he met Dr. Frankland, who had charge ol tho chemical laboratory. This college had been the harmony hall of the Socialists, which, under the auspices of Robert Owen, was built to inaugurate the millenium. The letters " C of M"—commencement of millennium—wero actually inserted in flint in the brickwork of the house. Here he learnt by practical experience that two factors go to the formation of a teacher. In regard to knowledge, he must, of course, be master of his work, but knowledge was not all. There might be knowledge without power—the ability to form without the ability to rtimulate. Both go together in the true teacher. A power of character must underlie aid enforce the work of the intellect. There were men who could so rouse and energise their pupils —so call forth their strength and the pleasure of its exorcise—as to make tho hardest work agreeable. Without this power, it was questionable whether the teacher could ever neally enjoy his vocation. With it he did not know a higher, nobler, more blessed calling than that of the man who, scorning the cramming so prevalent in our d-cy, converted the knowledge he imparted into a lever to lift, exercise, and strengthen the growing minds committed to hi* care. With £200 or £300 he had saved he went with Dr. Frankland to study at Marburg Hesse Cassel, the principal figure in the University being Bunsen, who had made his name illustrious by chemical researches of unparalleled difficulty and importance. His visit to Germany (continued Professor Tyndall) was not unfairly described at t'.ie time as Quixotic, for he did not work for money, nor was he oven spurred by "the last infirmity of noble minds." He had been reading Fichte, Emerson, and Carl;-le, and had been affected by the spirit 'of those great men—for great they were, The alpha and omega of their teaching was loyalty to duty. Higher knowledge and greater strength were within reach of the man who unflinchingly acted with his best, insight. It was a noble doctrine, and held him to his work. He concentrated his chief attention on mathematics, physios, and chemistry. In 1851 he proceeded to Berlin, and worked in the laboratory of Professor Magnus, who had made hia name famous by physical researches of all kinds. The last years of his life were, for the most part, occupied in a discussion with himself (Dr. Tyndall) on one of the most difficult- subjects of experimental physics—the - interaction of radiant hect and matter in the gaseous state of aggregation.' Among the eminent scientists whom he met at Berlin was Ehrenberg, with whom he conversed about microscopic organisms. He required at the time some amorphous carbonate of lime, and thought that Ehrenberg's microscopic chaik shells might servo his purpose ; but he was thrown back by learning that the shells, small as they were, were built of crystals smaller still. Hemsholtz was then iu Konigsberg, and had written his renowned essay on the conservation of energy, which he (Professor Tyndall) translated. Helmsholtz .had, too, just finished his experiments on the velocity of nervous transmission, proving this velocity, which had previously been regarded as instantaneous, or at all events as equal to that of electricity, to be in the nerves of the frog only 93 feet a second, or about one-twelfth of the velocity of sound in air of the ordinary temperature. In his own bouse Dr. Tyndall had an interview with Humboldt, who gave him various messages to Faraday, declaring his belief that he (Faraday) had referred the annual and diurnal variation of the declination of the magnetic needle to their true cause—the variation of the magnetic condition of the oxygen of the atmosphere. He was interested *to learn from Humboldt himself that, though eo large a portion of his life had been spent in France, ho never published a French essay without having it first revised by a Frencnman. In conclusion, Dr. Tyndall asked his audience to accept his address as a fragmont of the life of a brother who had felt the scars of the battle in which many of them were now engaged.—Scotsman.