John tyndall

John Tyndall (August 2, 1820 - December 4, 1893)

By MelissaWest

  • Diagmagnetism

    The study of diamagnetism became one of the first comprehensive studies in Tyndall's career. He worked with Michael Faraday and J.P. Gassiot in understanding the effects of diagmagnetism through experimentation. Because of his work, he was awarded the Royal Medal of the Royal Society. Tyndall declined the medal because he felt that he, solely, could not accept it. The following link is a great explanation of what diagmagnetism is:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u36QpPvEh2c

  • Glaciology

    Glaciology
    Tyndall became an avid mountain climber, reaching the top of Weisshorn in 1861 and the Matterhorn in 1868. While in the Alps, he studied glaciers and how they moved. His explanation of glacial regelation didn't sit too well for fellow glaciologist James David Forbes and, therefore, could never come to an agreement.

  • The First Radio Spectrophotometer

    The First Radio Spectrophotometer
    Tyndall invented this device to measure the heat absorption strength of various gases in the Earth's atmosphere, such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, ozone, and hydrocarbons. According to this data, he found out that water vapor had the greatest amount of absorption rate, followed by carbon dioxide. This became the basis on climate change and the greenhouse effect. This discovery also led to the invention of a device to measure CO2 gas from humans to monitor breathing in anesthetized patients.

  • The Tyndall Effect

    The Tyndall Effect
    Why is the sky blue? Tyndall developed this glass tube to demonstrate how light from the sun scatters light off of particles in the Earth's atmosphere to make the sky appear blue. He would have a beam of light at one end of the tube and fill the tube with smoke. The end result is the light looking blue from the side and red from the other end of the tube.

  • Tyndallization

    Tyndall pioneered into the world of microbiology and created the first sterilization method, mainly for food storage. It consisted of boiling the substance for 15 minutes for three days straight. He figured that if any bacteria survived the first day, then continuous boiling would kill them off.