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John Tyndall began experimenting with the absorption of IR radiation from gasses. He created his own equipment in order to experiment. Through meticulous notes, Tyndall discovered that heat is absorbed by gasses in the air. He discovered that water absorbed more heat that pure air, and that ammonia absorbed the most heat. Of the many gasses used in his experiment, he discovered that Carbonic acid gas, or carbon dioxide (C02) absorbed a tremendous amount of gas.
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Through his experiments with absorption of IR in gasses, the discovery of the heat retained in CO2 became known as the greenhouse effect. Tyndall is credited with first pioneering the science behind global warming.
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Tyndall moved to work with visible light and discovered how light is scattered. He assessed that particles in the air scatter visible light and through this scattering the sky appears blue. Later it was discovered that it was not particles scattering light, but it was the air itself, but his theory was correct.
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Tyndall found that you could bend light through a jet of water. This understanding of reflection and diffraction of light would later advance technologies that we use today.
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Research that was conducted by Tyndall on the reflection and diffraction of light was implemented much later with the creation of Fiber Optics.
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The Tyndall Center of Climate Change is constructed and named after John Tyndall for his early discoveries of climate change at the University of East Anglia in the UK
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This is not a short video by Paul Hurley, but it goes into great detail on the life and achievements of Tyndall https://youtu.be/1thc8JDgfXo This is a short video showing an experiment made by John Tyndall https://youtu.be/mNp-uM3fvR8
