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John Tyndall was born on August 2, 1820 in Leighlinbridge, Ireland to a poor Protestant, Irish family.
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John Tyndall began working at an early age. As a teenager, Tyndall was employed with the Ordnance Survey. Beginning in 1839, Tyndall was employed as a draftsman for the Ordnance Survey of Ireland. Three years later he took a job with the Ordnance Survey of Britain.
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In 1847, Tyndall took a teaching job in the subject of mathematics at Queenwood College in Hampshire. Tyndall stated, "During this arduous period of my life my old tendencies, chief among which was the desire to grow intellectually, did not forsake me; I accepted in 1847 a post as master in Queenwood College, Hampshire." (Tyndall, 1989)
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Before Tyndall completed his Ph.D. at Marburg University, he and Hermann Knoblauch began working on a theory known as diamagnetism. First proposed by English scientist Michael Faraday in 1845. Diamagnetism was the theory that a magnetic force could cause the rotation of polarized light through glass.
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John Tyndall left his job as a mathematics teacher at Queenwood College in Hampshire to begin his studies at Marburg University in Germany. John Tyndall "completed his PhD at the University of Marburg in 1850 while starting his first substantial period of research into the phenomenon of diamagnetism." (Roland, 2015)
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In 1859, Tyndall began studying the effects of radiant heat on different gases. During this time, Tyndall constructed the first known ratio spectrophotometer and "discovered the vast differences in the abilities of perfectly colorless and invisible gases and vapors to absorb and transmit radiant heat." (NASA, 1999)
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In 1869 Tyndall noted, "the absorption and emission of heat by water vapor could explain differences between air temperatures at midday and evening, or the temperature at the top of a mountain compared to the bottom." (Hawkins, 2018)
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John Tyndall died in 1893 of an accidental overdose of chloral hydrate which he used to his insomnia.
