BIO: John Tyndall was born in Leighlinbridge, Co. Carlow on 02 Aug 1820. During the course of his life, this very intelligent poet-scientist was to invent practical items such as a safe miners' lamp, a powerful lighthouse beacon and the first practical gas mask -- therefore being responsible for saving the lives of many thousands of miners, sailors and common labourers. In France, Pasteuration is called Tyndallization, for it was John Tyndall who apparently first discovered the process of killing bacteria in milk, Louis Pasteur merely passed along Tyndall's discovery to mankind. Per article in "Ireland of the Welcomes," Tyndall could be called a brillant but "invisible scientist" whose theories and accomplishments were often attributed to others. John Tyndall also described the action of the fungus penicillum on bacteria over a century before Sir Alexander Fleming re-discovered the antibotic. Tyndall was also a master mountaineer, and was the first person to climb several peaks in the Alps. He reached to within a few hundred feet of the top of the famed Matterhorn the year before Whymper succeeded in the difficult climb. Tyndall was directly descended from a group of Gloucestershire farmers who crossed the Irish Sea in the 17th century. His parents, although apparently well educated, were poor. His mother was disinherited for marrying against her father's wishes. His father was a sergeant in the Royal Irish Constabulary, and an Orangeman by inclination, although the senior Tyndall most certainly was not a religious bigot. He did, in fact, send his son John to school under the tutelage of a Catholic who can be best described as a hedge schoolmaster. It was a pay school, a luxury that John Tyndall senior could ill afford. Master Conwill was known over the entire countryside for his scholarship and teaching ability. He imparted to his students a basic foundation in English and mathematics as well as surveying, the latter being indispensable for young John whose interests were to lead him into the physical sciences. John studied under Conwill until his 17th birthday, a far older age tha! n most country lads. In retrospect, it seems that Tyndall was more than likely an assistant schoolmaster during his latter two years at Ballinbranagh schoolhouse. Tyndall joined the Ordnance Survey as a Civil Servant on 01 April 1839. For a short time he surveyed in Co Carlow close to his home, but in 1840 he was transferred to Youghal in Co. Cork. In 1842 he was transferred by the Ordnance Survey to Preston in England. He never returned to Ireland expect for short visits home. In Preston he joined the Chartist labour movement led by immigrants from Ireland. His articles in the "Liverpool Mercury" were outspoken and exposed the injustices to the lower working classes, Irish and English alike. Since the Civil Service could ill afford to be politicised by his strong position concerning labour he was fired and returned to Carlow to rethink his future. Since the Tyndalls were Quakers it should be no surprise that the brilliant young scholar joined the staff of Queenswood College, a progressive Quaker school in Hampshire, England. Here Tyndall and his closest friend, the chemist Edward Frankland, built the first practical science laboratory in England. In 1848 he left Queenwood to work on a Ph.D. at Marbury University in Germany, and completed a mathematical dissertation in only two years. While there he came under the influence of the German chemist Robert Bunsen who invented the famous Bunsen burner, even today a basic instrument of every chemistry laboratory. By June 1851, Tyndall had returned to England and made many influential scientific friends. He was nonetheless defeated in attempts to gain a lectureship at Cork and Galway Universities. Had he succeeded he might have spent the remainder of his life in his native land. As fate would have it he was chosen to present a lecture at the Royal Institute (The Royal ! Society). His lectureship was recommended by a committee of which Michael Faraday, the great electrical scientist, was a prominent member. Tyndall's outstanding lecture so impressed Faraday and others that he was shortly afterwards elected Professor of Natural Philosophy at the great Institute. Faraday and Tyndall were to remain admiring co-workers and friends for the rest of Faraday's life. When his friend died, John Tyndall succeeded him as Secretary of the Royal Institute. The rest of Tydall's life was spent managing and conducting experiments and writing first-class poetry. Importantly, John invented the first infra-red spectrophotometer. Excerpts, "Ireland of the Welcomes," July-August 1984