Lake ice
Date
1885
Creator
Unknown, Engraver
After
John Tyndall (1820 - 1893, British) , Physicist
Object type
Library reference
12908
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (page): 190mm
width (page): 125mm
height (print): 43mm
width (print): 65mm
width (page): 125mm
height (print): 43mm
width (print): 65mm
Subject
Description
Study of ice formation on a lake’s surface.
Captioned: ‘Liquid flowers in lake ice’
Written in the associated text: ‘Take a slab of lake ice and place it in the path of a concentrated sunbeam. Watch the track of the beam through the ice. Part of the beam is stopped, part of it goes through; the former produces internal liquefaction, the latter has no effect whatever upon the ice. But the liquefaction is not uniformly diffused. From separate spots of the ice little shining points are seen to sparkle forth. Every one of those points is surrounded by a beautiful liquid flower with six petals.’
Unnumbered plate from John Tyndall’s The forms of water, in clouds & rivers, ice & glaciers (London: Kegan Paul, 1885). From chapter 11, ‘Architecture of Lake Ice’.
John Tyndall (1820-1893), British physicist and mountaineer, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1852.
Captioned: ‘Liquid flowers in lake ice’
Written in the associated text: ‘Take a slab of lake ice and place it in the path of a concentrated sunbeam. Watch the track of the beam through the ice. Part of the beam is stopped, part of it goes through; the former produces internal liquefaction, the latter has no effect whatever upon the ice. But the liquefaction is not uniformly diffused. From separate spots of the ice little shining points are seen to sparkle forth. Every one of those points is surrounded by a beautiful liquid flower with six petals.’
Unnumbered plate from John Tyndall’s The forms of water, in clouds & rivers, ice & glaciers (London: Kegan Paul, 1885). From chapter 11, ‘Architecture of Lake Ice’.
John Tyndall (1820-1893), British physicist and mountaineer, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1852.
Object history
This copy of Tyndall's Forms of water was donated to the Royal Society by Walter Thompson Welford FRS (1916 – 1990), British physicist.
Associated place