John Tyndall was a leading scientific figure in Victorian Britain, who established the physical basis of the greenhouse effect, and why the sky is blue. This rich biography describes the colourful life and achievements of this brilliant communicator, physicist, and mountaineer, who ascended from humble beginnings to the heart of Victorian society.
Jackson's book is as comprehensive as it is overdue ... Jackson at once recounts the important events of Tyndall's life and uses Tyndall himself to build a richly textured picture of the social and scientific world in which he lived. The book favours a rigorous attention to detail ... Jackson's impressive facility with the scientific and political contexts of Tyndall's late-nineteenth-century world enables him to weave together a series of themes that define both the man and the period, providing a useful and comprehensive launching pad for a wide variety of forays in to the social and scientific worlds of Victorian England.
