John
Tyndall’s Boyhood and Education
John Tyndall was born on August 2nd, 1820 in Leighlinbridge, Carlow. We have
however strong evidence (VIII) to suggest that Tyndall was in
fact born at the junction of Carlow Road and Tullow Street in Leighlinbridge
and this position is marked on Map 1 which shows the area centred on
Leighlinbridge. The row of two storey brick buildings which were in a
terrace fell into disrepair at the turn of the century and stood as ruins,
until we think 1932, when they were replaced by the present row of houses.
The old houses belonged to the Steuart family for whom Tyndall's father and
grandfather worked for a number of years. We believe his father carried on
his shoe business in this house.
The young boy enjoyed a supremely happy childhood on the banks of the Barrow
as is evidenced from John's later writings.
As
an adventurous boy he obviously had many mishaps and we are told in a letter
of the most painful of these. "When I was a boy I was extremely fond of
getting across any animal which by any possibility would be mounted. I once
climbed on a kicking donkey with my arm in a sling for I had newly chopped
off my thumb with a hatchet some time previously. The sling hampered me and
I was thrown by the kicking donkey, falling upon the wrist of the wounded
hand. I remember to the present now the agony produced by that sprain." (Ref
4).
This letter written at end of his life results with unrestrained affection
"the free and joyous life when I lived as a boy."
In
extracts from letters to his closest friend Tom Hirst we find:
1850: "You will look on it with a feeling similar to mine sometimes when I
recall to mind a certain day on which I followed the hunt in Ireland and had
to save myself from positive starvation by eating maggothy blackberries."
1850: "When a little boy on my way to school I often lurked among the bird
nests and primroses."
1851: "Part of the time I spent pleasantly in a church yard reading the
tombstones — from my boyhood I have taken a pleasure in a stroll among the
graves, there is a quiet soothing sadness in the place, like the falling
autumn leaves."
1869: ". . . nothing in the world filled me with greater delight than the
practice of swimming."
1872: "When a boy I remember committing to memory a poem about Bunker Hill.
Yesterday I stood upon Bunker Hill, or rather Breed Hill . . ." (Ref 5).
It was in these days that Tyndall, the young daredevil, prepared himself for
his later historic mountaineering exploits. When his wife Mrs. L. C. Tyndall
came to Ireland (IX) in 1894 she discovered an old woman who had
been at school with "Johnny and Emma". From this source she heard of
"Johnny's wild pranks, and how his mother used to wander after him, always
fearing that he would break his neck."
An
old man in the village remembered Tyndall climbing the roof of a mill, told
her how they would often put their books down in the field on their way to
school and stop and fight — "just for the fun of fighting". Many a time they
had given each other black eyes, "He was as supple as an eel" said another,
and "would hop like nothing over a five bar gate." "A swift runner, a fan-
boxer, an expert swimmer, an adept at climbing, these physical
accomplishments stood him in good stead later on his Alpine adventures."
(Ref 1). (Page 3).
He
was also apparently very successful as a hockey player.
Two facts about the beginning of Tyndall's education have been recorded.
Thompson noted,
".
. . the young boy's early intellectual discipline consisted largely of
exercises in the logical disputations. An early interest in nature was,
however, encouraged by his father who playfully called him Newton and spoke
of the great man as, 'That son of science, whose meridian ray kindled the
gloom of Nature into day'." (Ref 6).
It
appears that his direct introduction to natural philosophy came about when
he borrowed a volume of Encyclopaedia Britannica, which was nearly as large
as himself,
"reading the chapters on Aeorostation, Electricity and Phlogiston, had made
balloons and manufactured gas to the infinite annoyance of almost everybody
but himself." (Ref 7).
Of
Tyndall's early education we know very little except that he was preoccupied
with enjoying his boyhood. On later reflection he attempted to explain his
lack of commitment to schoolwork:
"The aversion did not arise from apathy or want of appetite for knowledge,
but simply from the fact that my early teachers lacked the power of
imparting vitality to what they taught me." (Ref 8).
It
is hard however to believe that so adventerous a child could have been
interested by any teacher in school work.
From his father's pay list (Ref 9) (X) from the constabulary we
discover that the Tyndall's left Nurney on 1 November, 1833 for
Castlebellingham in Co. Louth. The young Tyndall attended the schools in
both Nurney and Castlebellingham. From the story of Tyndall crossing the
fields to school at Nurney we infer that there was no living quarters in the
R.I.C. barracks and that the family lived in a house somewhere across the
fields.
The family almost certainly came back to Leighlin, in 1836, because Thompson
(Ref 10) noted that John began attending the school in Ballinabranna when he
was 16. This was a remarkable thing bearing bearing in mind the Tyndall's
extreme protestantism because this was a Catholic school. This decision is
explained in Eve and Creasey.
"Mr. John Conwill, a teacher of high repute, was the master. Conwill was a
Roman Catholic, and that this was not viewed as a deterrent shows that
Tyndall's father was no bigot, whatever his ardour for controversy. When the
Protestant minister heard that the boy was going to a Roman Catholic
teacher, he paid a visit of expostulation. 'Reverend sir' exclaimed the
father, 'if Conwill taught upon the alter steps, I would send my sons to
him, as I have no doubt that he will receive from Conwill a sound secular
education — that will fit him for life'." (Ref 11).
This was indeed the case, and it is unlikely that there has been a better
teacher in Co. Carlow, Catholic or Protestant since Conwill's day.
There was some interesting observations on the teacher at this school
(XI) found in an article in Westminster Populars, although it should
be pointed out that Conwill was not of course Tyndall's first teacher.
Despite this obvious error the quotation contains valuable information.
"Although his parents were staunch Protestant his first schoolmaster (?) was
a Catholic, John Conwill. In an interesting article on Tyndall's early years
in the Dublin Evening Telegraph, we are told that "Conwill lived long after
Tyndall's boyhood teaching successive generations of lads who were never
allowed to forget that they had the same opportunity at the start of their
march as 'John, Professor Tyndall'. Old Mr. Conwill, we learn from the same
source, was one of those schoolmasters of whom Goldsmith's was a type. 'He
was fond of quoting those famous from 'The Deserted Village', and his
schoolboys all realised that if Goldsmith village master had been only a
dream schoolmaster — as he was not — the dream now has at last come true.
Like all teachers of genius, Conwill had his own methods, and when after the
establishment of National Schools he was caught up into the 'system' his
independence of views was not always sunk into the ideas of Tyrone House.
(Nat. Education Office, Marlboro' St., Dublin). Loyally his boys scorned his
critics and after times only his discipline checked them from teaching 'the
inspector' his place. Whatever his methods, his results were good, as
Tyndall always gratefully acknowledged. The 'Professor' brought away from
his first school (?) a sound knowledge of all the elementary branches of
mathematics. It was, first of all, his equipment as a means of livelihood,
and then the basis of which he reared the fabric of his extensive knowledge
of the natural science." (Ref 12).
Detailed information on Tyndall's course of study with Conwill show how
impressive this education was by any standard. Here Tyndall in less than
three years,
"Studied the rudiments of algebra, the elements of plane and solid geometry,
trigonometry and conic sections. Bishop Elrington's edition of Euclid was
Tyndall's first school book on this subject. To this succeeded to the
treatises of Lardner and Wallace which were both completely mastered. The
first work in arithmetic which was put into the hands, was a treatise of
Professor Thompson, the father of the present celebrated Sir William
Thompson." (Ref 12).
Tyndall's closeness to Conwill is a matter of legend locally. Tyndall's
walks home from Ballinabranna to Leighlin were often accompanied by Conwill
and it was said by Alice Tracey (Ref 13) that they worked out geometrical
problems in the snow on the road which was parallel to the Barrow. In fact
in the snow of the winters of 1837 and 1838, the authors believe that these
problems were solved not on the road but on the canal footpath.
It
would seem logical that since Conwill's house was almost on the Barrow bank
that it would be a shorter route to Ballinabranna school along the Barrow
track. Furthermore to get from Conwill's house to the road the teacher would
have had to walk across fields and up the 'road' which would have probably
been muddy in the snows. This walk itself could have taken twenty minutes.
The Barrow track would have been easily negotiable at this time as it was in
constant use, while the road would probably have been little more than a
cart track. Furthermore in Tyndall's own journal he described a walk to Conwill's house down the Barrow track via the three arches. This famous
incident therefore almost certainly occurred on the Barrow track and not on
the road. Before passing over these formative years of Tyndall it is worth
pointing out that Conwill took his pupils on surveying expeditions.
We would
ask if these were the first practical surveying classes in Ireland. Writers
on Tyndall are obviously concerned with exploring the education which
produced such marvellous results but it would be wrong to suggest that he
was a swat, for apart from his local adventures, so many of which seemed to
have been remembered, he certainly found the time for the normal young man's
alliances with a number of local girls.
Part 3
