1-157-631 - Oxford Science Archive/Heritage Images

John Tyndall lecturing on electromagnetism at the Royal Institution, London. May 1870. Irish-born British physicist 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. From The Illustrated London News, 14 May 1870.