History of Climate Science John Tyndall Autograph Letter Signed on Glaciers and Heat Research Written During Greenhouse Investigations 19 July 1872

John Tyndall

Manuscripts & Autographs

Tyndall, John. Autograph Letter Signed, 19 July 1872, written in the year he published major work on atmospheric heat absorption that established the physical basis of what is now termed the greenhouse effect. Addressed to poet Matthew Arnold, the letter situates Tyndall within the intellectual networks of Victorian Britain at a moment when his experimental investigations into radiant heat and atmospheric gases were reshaping scientific understanding of climate. “Firstly,” he writes, “I promised to send you for a copy a little book about the glaciers, which might have added interest this visit to Switzerland…,” signing “John Tyndall.” His reference to glaciers is historically resonant: Tyndall’s mountaineering studies in the Alps informed his investigations into heat transfer, building upon Fourier’s earlier insights and leading to his experimental demonstration in the 1860s and early 1870s that certain gases, including carbon dioxide, absorb and re radiate heat within the atmosphere. In 1872 he expanded these findings in published form, providing a systematic treatment of heat absorption by gases that laid groundwork for later climate science.

Tyndall, John. Autograph Letter Signed. 19 July 1872. Two pages, approximately 5.25 x 8.25 inches, signed “John Tyndall.” The correspondence belongs to a period of sustained productivity in which Tyndall advanced experimental physics while promoting public scientific education and free thought. In the year following this letter he published The Forms of Water in Clouds & Rivers, Ice & Glaciers (1873), further integrating glaciology with atmospheric physics. Beyond climate related research, Tyndall also conducted experiments on airborne particulates and sterilization, developing a method later termed “Tyndallization” in support of germ theory during exchanges with Louis Pasteur. The present letter thus emerges from the same decade in which Tyndall’s work unified laboratory experimentation, alpine field study, and public scientific discourse. Light crease along original fold, age related toning and light foxing; thin vertical tear along left margin approximately 2.5 cm not affecting text; manuscript clear and legible. Overall condition: good.

Item #15191

Price: $1,500.00