One of the great scientists of the 19th century, who explained to the world why the sky is blue, the principles of  internal reflection, and one of the first to recognise the earth's natural greenhouse effect. He invented the light pipe the forerunner to modern day fibre optic cable. 

JOHN TYNDALL 
 
Not sure that the picture to the right does the man justice.  If John was alive today with his personality and flair for making science simple and fun he would have been a regular on our TV.  I heard a story about one of his experiment pieces used to demonstrate smoke rings and vortexes; he would replace the smoke with an unpleasant smelling substance that he could direct at unsuspecting passers by. (Build your own in our Make It Build It section)

Born on 2 August 1820, at Leighlin Bridge, County Carlow, Ireland, the son of a member of the Irish Constabulary. He left school at 17 to join the Irish Ordnance Survey and established an early career, first as a practical surveyor and draftsman and later as a mathematics teacher.

His scientific career started in 1848 when, at the age of 28, he left the UK to study for a doctorate in Germany. Despite his limited knowledge of both science and German, he started research into the magnetic properties of crystals and completed all the work required for a doctoral degree in less than 2 years.  He was unable to finance further research once back in Britain, and back to teaching.

Whilst supplementing his income by writing for a scientific magazine in 1853 a change of fortune came his way. He was asked to present a lecture to the Royal Institute in London. His competent and engaging style was so popular that he was invited to deliver a whole course of lectures. Three months later he was elected Professor of Natural Philosophy. Earning a reputation as a popular and respected lecturer, Tyndall continued his research in the Institute's laboratories. In 1859 he began investigating the ability of various gases to absorb and radiate heat. These included water vapour, carbon dioxide, and ozone, the upper layer of atmosphere so vital to life on Earth, was an oxygen cluster rather than a hydrogen compound. Tyndall identified that these gases, even in small quantities, absorb heat much more strongly than other gases in the atmosphere thus creating the potential for a greenhouse effect.  In the 1860's, Tyndall began suggesting that slight changes in the atmospheric composition could bring about climatic variations - an observation of significant meteorological importance. 

In the course of his study with light beams he discovered, in 1869, the Tyndall effect: the diffusion of light by large molecules and dust. He suggested that the sky is blue due to the scattering of the sun's rays by molecules in the atmosphere, a phenomenon which was later explained theoretically by Lord Rayleigh. The bluish plane polarised light scattered in the Tyndall effect is called Tyndall blue and the luminous path formed in the Tyndall effect by the breaking up of the entering light by suspended particles is known as a Tyndall cone. He is credited with the first ever atmospheric pollution measurements using infrared and scattering measurement instruments to monitor the London atmosphere

John succeeded Michael Faraday as director of the Royal Institute in 1867. He resigned in 1887 due to ill health although he continued to be active within the spheres of science, education, and politics. As his health worsened he experimented more and more with drugs until tragically in 1893 Tyndall died from an overdose of chloral accidentally administered by his wife Louisa.

Download the Clever Chaps folder to see how, like John Tyndall, you can demonstrate why the sky is blue. 

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