History of Science and Technology Colloquium

Through the work of the experimental physicist John Tyndall, I will analyze the close relationship formed in the mid-nineteenth century between advances in the physical sciences and the equally dramatic rise of mountaineering. Tyndall held the position of Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institution for over thirty years, and along with groundbreaking research in the physical sciences, he worked throughout his career to popularize the study of physics. He was also a pioneering mountaineer during the golden age of mountaineering in Europe. After receiving training in surveying and working as a railway engineer, Tyndall studied the magnetic properties of the earth’s rocks, which in turn led him to similar studies on the fracturing of glaciers. His work on glaciers led him to the topics of radiant heat, the scattering of light by particles in the atmosphere, and to his now famous explanation of global warming. Note that Tyndall's scientific research programs took an obvious vertical orientation, from the ground up. As he practices his science, from rock quarries to glaciers to the study of the atmosphere, Tyndall's interests in the fundamental forces of nature brought him to the summits of mountains. Or, said a bit differently, as he climbed mountains, he found that he could more readily answer questions concerned with the very nature of physics. In either case, his science and mountaineering were tellingly mixed. As one of the leading definers and popularizers of his discipline, Tyndall's life and work suggest that physics was at least partly defined on the vertical, rocky faces of mountains.