The Ascent of John Tyndall: Victorian Scientist, Mountaineer, and Public Intellectual

by Roland Jackson

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198788959
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	07/01/2018
Pages:	594
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 2.00(d)

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.

Table of Contents

A note on wordsIntroduction1. Irish Beginnings (c. 1822-1844)2. Railway Mania (1844-1847)3. Queenwood College (1847-1848)4. Marburg (1848-1850)5. Making a Name (1850-1853)6. Clash of Theories (1854-1856)7. Glacial Explorations (1856-1857)8. Storms over Glaciers (1858-1860)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)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)24. Hindhead (1880-1883)25. Rainbows and Lighthouses (1883-1885)26. The Final Years (1886-1893)EpilogueNotesBibliography

Editorial Reviews

06/11/2018
With this exhaustive and, at times, exhausting work, Jackson (The Correspondence of John Tyndall, editor), head of London’s Science Museum, attempts to revive appreciation for Victorian scientist John Tyndall (1822–1893). Unfortunately for Tyndall—and unlike some of his acquaintances, such as Charles Darwin—he has no singular accomplishment to recommend him. He was the first to posit a correct but incomplete answer to the question “Why is the sky blue?” and was one of the first scientists to find that atmospheric gases absorb radiation, but it fell to others to expand on these discoveries. Tyndall was also an avid mountain climber, which led him to a greater understanding of glaciers and many summers spent in the Alps. While these and other aspects of Tyndall’s career, such as his championing of germ theory, may be of interest to science buffs, Jackson spends too much time on minutiae. Page after page is devoted to the dinners Tyndall attended and even what was served, subjects and audience size at ongoing lecture series, and other quotidian details. Tyndall was certainly a major figure of his day, but Jackson’s biography is unlikely to persuade a modern audience of his continued importance. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"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

"Roland Jackson has done a thorough job... it is certainly the best biography of Tyndall." — John Gribbin, Literary Review

"Jackson's book arrives just in time to help situate Tyndall's work on heat in the atmosphere-which has recently seen him dubbed an anachronistic "father" of global warming-within the context of a life bursting with science and much else besides . . . Roland Jackson's admirably complete biography is the first serious biography to appear since a patchy production appeared in 1945, soon after [Tyndall's wife] Louisa's death. It's about time." — Science

"A massive biography of one of the Victorian era's most significant all-around scientists. Science historian Jackson sets himself the monumental task of sorting through the volumes of writing of Irish scientist John Tyndall." — Kirkus

"Roland Jackson brings a unique set of credentials to his chronicle of Tyndall's life. The author is himself an accomplished mountaineer, who has served as Head of London's Science Museum . . . It was not until 1945, more than half a century after his death, that a semi-authorised biography of Tyndall was published. Now Jackson has authoritatively redressed this injustice." — Geographical

"Splendid monument of a biography." — Barbara Kiser, Nature

"In Jackson's hands, Tyndall becomes the perfect lens through which to analyse the questions and controversies we are still dealing with today: the role of the humanities and sciences both in broader culture and in our education systems; the role of gases in global warming; and the increasingly close ties between science, industry, and government." — Michael Reidy, Metascience

"One of the most important mountaineering biographies to have been published in recent years... Roland Jackson's biography of John Tyndall is not only a tour de force of scholarship, it's also an eminently readable book... It's a magnificent piece of work and a must-read for every scholar of Alpine history." - Alex Roddie, The Great Outdoors

"Excellent biography... The Ascent of John Tyndall is a long-overdue, magnificent tribute to an important, but largely under-appreciated scientist. Highly recommended." — Richard Carter, Friends of Darwin

From the Publisher

2018-04-11
A massive biography of one of the Victorian era's most significant all-around scientists.Science historian Jackson sets himself the monumental task of sorting through the volumes of writing of Irish scientist John Tyndall (1820-1893), who began his career as a surveyor for the railroads. A true autodidact, in 1847 he was hired to teach at Queenwood College, where he was able to attend lectures on chemistry and botany and learned about discovery-based and child-centered learning. He also became aware of Ralph Waldo Emerson's writings, which, along with those of Thomas Carlyle, influenced his work. Eventually, Tyndall began to teach lectures in physics at a time when laboratory science held little priority in British schools. He received a doctorate in Germany, where he developed his belief in the importance of molecular structure and his consummate skill in experimental design and execution. Seemingly always at work, he read widely in philosophy and wrote about his travels for publication while studying crystal structure and transmission of heat. It was the latter work that led to the discovery that Earth's atmosphere retained heat (greenhouse effect). His work on heat conduction in glaciers (supported by his Alpine mountaineering), structure of matter, promotion of scientific curriculum for schools, and classic demonstrations of science ensured that he was famous in his own time. He was sought after not only for his lectures, but also for his congeniality as a dinner guest. He was not, however, a mathematical physicist; he was an experimentalist—one of the best—rather than a theoretician. He disproved and/or improved others' theories and showed that pure science could lead to practical applications. The author notes a gap in Tyndall's journals from 1871 to 1883, a fact which readers may well appreciate. The book is chock-full of lists of friends he visited and lectures given and attended, and these sections become tiresome. Readers should have more than high school physics to comprehend Tyndall's work.A lengthy, difficult book about a remarkable man; devoted readers will muddle through.

Kirkus Reviews