1-157-191 - Oxford Science Archive/Heritage Images

John Tyndall, Irish-born British physicist, 1872. Tyndall (1820-1893) was appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institution, London in 1854. Some of his most notable work was carried out in the fields of heat radiation and acoustics. A keen mountaineer, he combined the pastime with studies of glacial motion in the Swiss Alps. Towards the end of his life Tyndall's health was poor and he died in 1893 from an accidental overdose of chloral hydrate, an imsomnia cure widely misused in the late 19th century. Cartoon from Vanity Fair, London, 6 April 1872.