(From “Notes by an Oxford Chiel,” 1871)
It has occurred to me to suggest for consideration how desirable
roofed buildings are for carrying on mathematical calculations: in
fact, the variable character of the weather in Oxford renders it
highly inexpedient to attempt much occupation, of a sedentary nature,
in the open air. Again, it is often impossible to carry on accurate
mathematical calculations in close contiguity to one another, owing
to their mutual conversation; consequently, these processes require
different rooms in which irrepressible conversationalists, who are
found to occur in every branch of Society, might be carefully and
permanently fixed.
It may be sufficient for the present to enumerate the following
requisites--others might be added as funds permit:
A. A very large room for calculating Greatest Common Measure. To this
a small one might be added for Least Common Multiple: this, however,
might be dispensed with.
B. A piece of open ground for keeping Roots and practising their
extraction: it would be advisable to keep Square Roots by themselves,
as their corners are apt to damage others.
C. A room for reducing Fractions to their Lowest Terms. This should be
provided with a cellar for keeping the Lowest Terms when found, which
might also be available to the general body of Undergraduates, for the
purpose of “keeping Terms.”
D. A large room, which might be darkened, and fitted up with a magic
lantern, for the purpose of exhibiting circulating Decimals in the act
of circulation. This might also contain cupboards, fitted with glass
doors, for keeping the various Scales of Notation.
E. A narrow strip of ground, railed off and carefully levelled, for
investigating the properties of Asymptotes, and testing practically
whether Parallel Lines meet or not: for this purpose it should reach,
to use the expressive language of Euclid, “ever so far.”
This last process of “continually producing the lines” may require
centuries or more, but such a period, though long in the life of an
individual, is as nothing in the life of the University.
As Photography is now very much employed in recording human
expressions, and might possibly be adapted to Algebraical Expressions,
a small photographic room would be desirable, both for general use
and for representing the various phenomena of Gravity, Disturbance of
Equilibrium, Resolution, etc., which affect the features during severe
mathematical operations.
[35] This whimsical skit burlesques the contents of a letter in which
the Professor of Physics at Christ Church met an offer of the Clarendon
Trustees by a detailed enumeration of the requirements in his own
department of Natural Science.