One hundred sixty seven years ago, on this day, May 26th, 1859, a paper by the Anglo-Irish scientist, John Tyndall, landed on someone’s desk at the Royal Society…
“Note on the Transmission of Radiant Heat through Gaseous Bodies.” By John Tyndall, Ph.D., F.R.S. &c. Received May 26, 1859 Royal Soc
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly zzzppm. As of 2026 it is 430ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The broader context was that this is the 19th century. Science is going gangbusters.
The specific context was that you have an Anglo Irish scientist who may or may have not lifted work from Eunice Foote. We’ll never know.
It’s not clear to me that he did, because she didn’t complain, and her allies didn’t complain, and other people who will have read her work at the time didn’t say, hey, “Tyndall’s nicking stuff.” That last point is not a slam dunk argument, of course, because you wouldn’t accuse an esteemed scientist of plagiarism or filching work, because it would not be gentlemanly, especially if he’s only if he’s pinching it from someone who is, after all, only a woman.
What I think we can learn from this. Oh, here we are, with the CO2 levels
What happened next. Tyndall died in 1893, accidentally killed by his wife just before Svante Arrhenius did his calculations, which took him a year, and produced his famous article about “carbonic acid.”
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
Also on this day:
May 26, 1978 – “Advisory Group on Climate” meeting
May 26, 1990 – Times front page about Thatcher going for stabilisation target – All Our Yesterdays