LORD KELVIN.
Few men lived to witness so many remarkable discoveries in science and
so many applications of the same to the welfare of the race as did the
man whose name stands at the head of this chapter. When William Thomson,
the future Lord Kelvin, first saw the light of day, the voltaic pile was
in a rudimentary and inefficient form. It is true that water had been
decomposed by the current from a pile in 1800,[37] that the magnetic
effect of the current had been discovered in 1820, and the possibility
of a practical form of an electric telegraph suggested in the same year;
but Ohm's law was still one of nature's secrets, electromagnetic
induction was undiscovered, and the doctrine of energy but ill
understood. Light, electricity and magnetism were regarded as distinct
forces, and heat was thought to be a material substance, to which the
name caloric was assigned. What Young, Fresnel and Ampère were in the
early years of the nineteenth century; what Faraday, Regnault and
Joseph Henry were some time later, Kelvin became in the 'fifties, a
leader in the intellectual and scientific life of the time, a leader
destined to extend the frontiers of knowledge, to establish an accurate
system of electrical measurement, and to enrich the world with
instruments of marvelous ingenuity and precision.
William Thomson, born in Belfast in 1824, received his early training in
the Royal Academic Institute of that city. When eight years of age, he
left his native land, exchanging the shores of Antrim for the banks of
the Clyde. His father, James Thomson, a mathematician of note, having
been appointed to the chair of mathematics in the University of Glasgow
(founded in 1451), proceeded early in the summer of 1832 to the
commercial metropolis of Scotland, accompanied by his two sons William
and James, both of whom were destined to add lustre to the family name.
After a period of preparatory study, the two brothers, who were ten and
eleven years of age, respectively, matriculated at the university. With
the iron-clad regulations that govern admission to American colleges and
universities, these boys would at best have been admitted to one of our
high schools, and kept there until they reached the maturity required by
the age limit. By the time young William attained that limit, he had
already finished his work at the university, and captured the first
prizes in mathematics, astronomy and natural philosophy. He was then
only sixteen years of age, small of stature, but a giant in intellect;
brilliant, versatile, and with a passion for work. It was his good
fortune, also, to come under the influence of a great teacher, in the
person of Prof. Nichol. "I have to thank what I heard in the natural
philosophy class," he said in 1903, "for all I did in connection with
submarine cables. The knowledge of Fourier was my start in the theory of
signaling through submarine cables, which occupied a large part of my
after-life. The inspiring character of Dr. Nichol's personality and his
bright enthusiasm live still in my mental picture of those old days."
Having heard Fourier's treatise on the mathematical theory of heat
spoken of one day as a remarkable and inspiring work, young Thomson
astonished the Professor when, at the end of the lecture, he addressed
Dr. Nichol with the query, "Do you think that I could read it?" To which
the Professor smilingly replied: "Well, the mathematical part is very
difficult." Many a student would have left Fourier alone for the nonce,
after listening to a statement so little calculated to excite courage or
awaken interest: but Thomson was not an ordinary student; and, however
forbidding the answer which he received, he was determined all the same
to handle the volume and seek its inspiration. Without delay, he got the
book from the university library, and grew so delighted with the new
ideas of the French mathematician about sine-expansions and
cosine-expansions, that in the space of two weeks he had "turned over
all the pages" of the book, as he modestly put it.
In the summer of 1840, he accompanied his father and his brother on a
tour through Germany, partly to see the country and partly also, to
acquire a practical knowledge of the language. In both these objects, he
was somewhat hindered by his fondness for mathematical studies, which
led him to include in his impedimenta for the trip a copy of Fourier's
_Théorie analytique de la Chaleur_. Most students out on a summer's
vacation, especially in foreign parts, would doubtless have preferred to
give their minds rest and congenial distraction rather than keep on
reading and pondering over abstract mathematical concepts. Our young
tourist, on the other hand, seems to have thought of little else than of
Fourier's "mathematical poem," as Clerk Maxwell called the work, a
"poem" that continued to have a charm for him all through life. It is a
noteworthy fact that Thomson continually returned to the ideas and
methods of this suggestive treatise on the flow of heat, and that he
applied them with great success to problems in thermal conductivity, in
electricity and in submarine telegraphy.
Shortly after returning home, Thomson was sent to the University of
Cambridge, where he entered St. Peter's College, commonly called
Peterhouse, one of the oldest colleges of the university, its foundation
dating back to the year 1284. Though he, no doubt, followed in a general
way the directions given him by William Hopkins, "the best of private
tutors," and kept in view the requirements of the honors examination,
called the "Mathematical Tripos," for which he intended to present
himself at the end of his course, he found his studies somewhat routinal
and uninspiring. Original work was more to his taste than conventional
subjects; his tutor, however, thought mainly of placing this brilliant
pupil at the head of the wranglers, and hailing him the senior wrangler
of the year, for which purpose, the beaten track must be followed, the
standard works read, favorite problems worked out, short-cuts conned and
rapidity of output exercised. Stokes, of Pembroke, had been senior
wrangler in 1841; Cayley, of Trinity, in 1842; and Adams, of John's, in
1843; why not Thomson, of Peterhouse, in 1845, argued Hopkins, who had
the distinction of being second wrangler of the previous year?
But when the ordeal was over and the work of all candidates appraised,
Thomson's name was second on the list, with Parkinson, of John's, at the
top. Hopkins was disappointed, as he had a right to be, for it was
thought by many and said by some that Parkinson was not fit to sharpen
Thomson's pencils. At the examination for the Smith's prizes, which
immediately followed, and which was generally regarded as a higher honor
and a better test of original ability, the order was reversed, and
Thomson's star blazed out with the brilliancy of the first magnitude.
We have here an instructive instance of the failure of an examination to
place rightly the most gifted man; that of Sylvester, in 1837, and Clerk
Maxwell, in 1854, both of whom were second wranglers, are equally so.
Examinations, however, seldom fail in justly rating candidates when
originality is not a necessary qualification, but only a sound knowledge
and liberal interpretation of the subjects laid down in the syllabus; a
good memory and rapidity of writing will do the rest.
Thomson committed the fatal mistake in the tripos examination of
devoting too much time to a particular question in which he was deeply
interested. It was a curious coincidence that the solution which
Parkinson sent in to the same question was almost identical with that of
his rival for mathematical honors. On being questioned about the matter
by the Moderators, Parkinson said that he had read the solution some
time before in the _Cambridge Mathematical Journal_; Thomson's
explanation was that the solution given in the Journal was his! As he
had not memorized the details, he was obliged of course to work the
problem out _de novo_.
Parkinson in later years wrote a treatise on elementary mechanics that
has long since made way for others; Thomson, on the other hand,
published in collaboration with Tait a _Treatise on Natural Philosophy_
for advanced students, which became at once the accepted standard.
Throughout this treatise, the view is emphasized that physics deals with
realities more than with theories, with mutual relations more than with
their mathematical expression. Helmholtz thought so highly of this work
that he translated it into German, saying in his preface: "William
Thomson, one of the most penetrating and ingenious thinkers, deserves
the thanks of the scientific world, in that he takes us into the
workshop of his thoughts and unravels the guiding threads which have
helped him to master and set in order the most resisting and confused
material." And again: "Following the example given by Faraday, he avoids
as far as possible hypotheses about unknown subjects, and endeavors to
express by his mathematical treatment of problems simply the law of
observable phenomena."
We are not to think of Thomson, the undergraduate, as of one who gave
himself up, mind and body, to his favorite studies; he knew how to
combine, in some measure, the _dulce_ with the _utile_, for he was fond
of music, and so proficient in the art that he was elected President of
the Musical Society. He also took a practical interest in aquatic
sports, and on the Cam he could ply his sculls with the best of the men.
Indeed, he was fond of the water all through life, his _Lalla Rookh_
being well known on the Clyde and in the Solent. Expert in the
navigation of his yacht, he liked to be out on the deep, caressed by
wind and buffeted by wave, on which occasions he usually studied, pencil
in hand, problems connected with navigation and hydrodynamics.
Thomson was never without his note-book. Even in his journeys to London,
when he usually took the night train to save time, his mind was active,
and the green-book was in frequent requisition to receive thoughts that
occurred relative to problems that engaged his attention. Unlike many
mortals, he was able to sleep soundly on those night trips, although in
the early days he had none of the luxuries of traveling which we
consider indispensable to our comfort.
Helmholtz records that, being on the _Lalla Rookh_ on one occasion,
Thomson "carried the freedom of intercourse so far that he always had a
mathematical note-book with him; and as soon as an idea occurred to him,
he began to reckon right in the midst of company." This reminds us of
the answer which Newton gave to a friend who asked him how he
accomplished so much. "By constantly thinking of it," was the brief
reply. Concentration of the faculties is necessary for all good work; a
distracted mind never achieved anything of value in philosophy, in
science, in religious worship. Concentration is like a convex lens,
which brings rays to a focus; whereas distraction is like a concave
lens, which breaks them up into a number of divergent and scattered
elements.
On leaving Cambridge in 1845, Thomson proceeded to London, and was
warmly received by Faraday, then of world-wide reputation. He next went
to Paris, where, in the laboratory of Regnault, he devoted himself to
original research, under the direction of that great and accurate
physicist who was then carrying out his classic work on the thermal
constants of bodies.
The year 1846 marks an epoch in Thomson's life; for, in that year, he
was chosen to succeed Nichol, his friend and master, in the chair of
natural philosophy in the University of Glasgow. Though only in his
twenty-second year, he chose for the subject of his inaugural address
the age of the earth, a subject which continued to have a life-long
interest for him because of its very fascination, and perhaps, too,
because of the opposition which his views aroused on the part of
biologists and geologists. These demanded untold æons for the original
fire-mist to cool down and form a spinning globe fit to be the abode of
organic life, whereas Thomson endeavored to show the weakness of the
arguments which they advanced to uphold their claim for unlimited time.
Basing his estimate on the rate of increase of temperature as we go
below the earth's surface, he concluded that the earth required from 100
to 200 million years, and probably less, to cool from its molten state
to its present condition.
Impressed by the value of the experimental work which he did under
Regnault in Paris, Prof. Thomson gave himself no rest until he secured a
place in which the demonstrations of the lecture-room could be
supplemented by qualitative and quantitative work in the laboratory.
This was the first "physical laboratory" open to students in Great
Britain, a fact that makes the year 1846 a memorable one in the history
of university development. Two apartments were allotted him for
experimental purposes, _viz._, an abandoned wine-cellar and a disused
examination-room, to which, as time went on, were added a corridor, some
spare attics, and even the university tower itself, so great was the
power of annexation possessed by the young Professor. In those dark and
cheerless rooms, a few old instruments were installed, after which
students were invited and work begun. A band of men, whose ardor was
enkindled by the glowing enthusiasm of the presiding genius, gathered
around him, and helped him to carry out investigations on the properties
of metals, on moduli of elasticity, elastic fatigue and atmospheric
electricity. Among this band of earnest students it will suffice to
mention the names of the late Prof. Ayrton, an eminent electrician;
Prof. John Perry, known for his Homeric battles in favor of reform in
the teaching of mathematics; Sir William Ramsay, the discoverer of the
"newer" gases of the atmosphere; and Prof. Andrew Gray, who succeeded
his master in the University of Glasgow.
Writing of his laboratory experiences, Prof. Ramsay says: "I remember
that my first exercise, which occupied over a week, was to take the
kinks out of a bundle of copper wire. Having achieved this with some
success, I was placed opposite a quadrant electrometer and made to study
its construction and use." "Although this method," he adds, "is not
without its disadvantages--for systematic instruction is of much
value--there is something to be said for it. On the one hand, too long a
course of experimenting on old and well known lines is likely to imbue
the young student with the idea that all physics consists in learning
the use of apparatus and repeating measurements which have already been
made. On the other hand, too early attempts to investigate the unknown
are likely to prove fruitless for want of manipulative skill and for
want of knowledge of what has already been done."
Prof. Gray wrote: "In the physical laboratory, Prof. Thomson was both
inspiring and distracting. He continually thought of new things to be
tried, and interrupted the course of work with interpolated experiments
which often robbed the previous sequence of operations of their final
result."
It may bring a grain of consolation to teachers who meet with
troublesome elements in the discharge of their duties, to know that
Thomson, great and brilliant as he was, had similar experiences now and
again. At one time a book of mathematical data would be removed from the
place assigned to it, upon which he would give orders that it should be
chained to the table; at others, there would be no chalk near the
blackboard, and then the assistant would be solemnly instructed to have
one hundred pieces available next time. On one occasion, he settled in a
very novel manner the case of a student who insisted on disturbing the
class by moving his foot back and forth on the floor. Calling his
assistant, Thomson told him in a whisper to go down into the room under
the tiers of seats, to listen attentively, and locate the wandering foot
by its distance from two adjacent walls of the building. On his return
to the lecture-room, the triumphant assistant gave the desired
coordinates to the Professor, who took out his tape at once and measured
off the distances, by which the outwitted offender was mathematically
located. In obedience to orders, the latter rose and left the room,
muttering a few graceful epithets as he went, in honor of Descartes, the
founder of a system of geometry that could serve so well the twofold
purpose of the detective and the mathematician.
It was the custom in Glasgow to open the daily sessions, morning and
afternoon, with prayer, the selection of which was left to the
discretion of the Professor. Thomson usually recited from memory the
third collect from the morning service of the Church of England, to
which he sometimes added reflections of his own for the spiritual
benefit of his hearers.
In his teaching, Prof. Thomson was particularly insistent that his
students should not bow their intellects in mute admiration before an
array of mathematical symbols; but that, on all occasions, they should
seek the physical meaning behind them. Writing on his blackboard one
day _dx/dt_, he was not satisfied when told that it represented the
ratio of the increment of _x_ to the increment of the independent
variable _t_ (time); he wanted the student to say it represents
velocity. He himself was so wont to look for the physical meaning of
symbols that, like the prophets of old, he saw many things that were
hidden from the eyes of ordinary mortals.
He had the rare gift of translating mathematical equations into real
facts; and he strove all throughout his life, by word and writing, to
purify mathematical theory from mere assumptions. He often said that he
could not understand a thing until he was able to make, or at least
conceive, a model of it.
He had a "keen mathematical instinct," as Prof. Silvanus P. Thomson puts
it in a letter to the writer, an insight that "grew to see things." He
often left matters in the dark for years, then returned to see them in
the clear light of truth. At the age of sixteen, he wrote a mathematical
essay on the figure of the earth; and at eighty-three, took it up again
in order to add a note to the argument!
Thomson was discursive in his lectures, and was never able to boil the
matter down to suit the taste and digestive powers of the ordinary
student. The activity of his mind and its fecundity were such that new
ideas, new problems, new modes of treatment were continually occurring,
and with such fascination that he would leave the main subject to
indulge in what often proved prolonged digressions. One of his bugbears
was our system of weights and measures, which he denounced in season
and out of season as "insane," "brain-wasting" and "dangerous."
Occasionally epithets of a more caloric nature would escape the lips of
the indignant Professor, who, as a consequence of his denunciation, had
always to be indulgent to students who chanced to be shaky in the matter
of Troy weight, avoirdupois weight or even apothecaries weight.
In later years, I heard Lord Kelvin at the Royal Institution, London, on
some of his favorite dynamical subjects, such as the gyrostat, vortex
rings and the like. However impressed by his keen eye, intellectual
forehead, his mastery of the subject and wealth of illustration, I was
no less impressed by his vivacity, his enthusiasm and the rapidity with
which he could leave a train of thought and return to it again.
At meetings of the British Association, he always had something
illuminating to say; but not infrequently, carried away by a torrent of
ideas, he would indulge in a superfluity of detail, forgetting that
other speakers had to be heard and other papers read.
The idea of connecting the Old World with the New by means of an
electric cable laid on the bed of the ocean, seemed to most people in
the 'fifties quixotic and utopian. Manufacturers said such a cable could
not be made; engineers, that it could not be laid; electricians, that it
could not be worked; and financiers, that if laid and worked, it would
never pay. But with a Field to look after the financial interests of the
scheme, and a Thomson to attend to electrical quantities, there was no
tilting at windmills, and the utopian scheme became in due time the
cable whose core pulsated with the news of the world.
As early as 1850, Bishop Mullock, of St. John's, N. F., addressed to an
American newspaper, called the _Courier_, a letter in which he advocated
a telegraph line from Newfoundland to New York, so that the news of mail
steamers could be intercepted and wired to that City. In 1852, the
"Newfoundland Electric Telegraph Company" was formed for the purpose of
carrying out a similar plan. This was to be accomplished by means of a
telegraph line from Cape Race, at the eastern extremity of Newfoundland
to Cape Ray, on the western, as well as by short cables over to Cape
Breton Island, to Prince Edward Island and the mainland, and thence by
ordinary telegraph lines to Canada and the United States. But owing to
the want of money, nothing was done.
The first attempt at laying a cable under the Atlantic was made by the
Atlantic Telegraph Company in 1857, after a careful survey of the ocean
had revealed the existence of a submarine plain, or extended table-land,
on which the cable could rest undisturbed by passing keels, monsters of
the deep or angry billows. The result was the first of a series of
failures, which caused great perplexity and depression at the time; for,
after 330 miles had been paid out from Valentia on the Irish coast, the
cable suddenly parted, burying in 2000 fathoms of water an electrical
conductor which had cost $150,000 for its manufacture.
A second attempt was made in 1858, when the U. S. frigate _Niagara_ and
H. M. S. _Agamemnon_, each carrying half of the cable, met in mid-ocean;
and, after splicing the two ends together, steamed away in opposite
directions, the _Niagara_ toward Newfoundland and the _Agamemnon_ toward
Valentia. Fortunately for the enterprise, Prof. Thomson was on board the
English ship as chief electrician. No doubt, his mind turned many a
time during those anxious days to Fourier's differential equation for
the flow of heat along a conductor, and his own application of it to the
conduction of the electric current through the copper core of the cable
as it came up from the tanks, trailed out behind the ship, dipped
silently into the blue water and slowly settled down to its bed of ooze
on the ocean floor.
After a series of disheartening mishaps, necessitating as many returns
of the ships to the rendezvous in mid-ocean, the _Agamemnon_ landed the
shore-end safely in Valentia; and the _Niagara_, after rolling and
pitching for days and nights in tempestuous seas, landed hers in Trinity
Bay on the morning of August 5th, 1858, on which historic date the
telegraphic union of the two worlds was finally consummated and the
great feat of the century accomplished.
Though not fully realized at the time by the capitalists who financed
his scheme, by the engineers and electricians who carried it out, or
even by statesmen, economists and social reformers, the slender copper
cord, buried away from human ken amidst the _débris_ of minute
organisms, was destined to effect a revolution in the affairs of men
greater than any achieved by the wisdom of sages or the policy of
legislators.
Owing to the electrostatic capacity of the cable, signaling would have
been difficult and unsatisfactory had it not been for the
resourcefulness of Prof. Thomson, who devised his reflecting
galvanometer to serve as receiving instrument. The principle of the
mirror applied in this way was not new, for it had been suggested by
Poggendorff and even used by Gauss in connection with very heavy
magnets. The magnets used by Thomson, on the other hand, were strips of
watch-spring weighing about a grain each, so that even a very weak
current coming through the cable would be sufficient to produce strong
displacements of the spot of light on the scale. Thomson was clearly the
first to insist on small dimensions in magnetic instruments, and to show
that reduction in size would be attended with corresponding increase in
sensitiveness.
The mirror galvanometer, surrounded with a thick iron case to screen it
from the magnetic field due to the iron of the ship, the "iron-clad
galvanometer" as it was called, was used for the first time on the
telegraphic expedition of 1858.
The instrument itself, which was fitted up on board the _Niagara_ and
which was connected with so many episodes of thrilling interest, was
placed by Prof. Thomson in the collection of historical apparatus in the
University of Glasgow, where it is at the present day.
Beautiful as was the invention of the mirror galvanometer, it gave
neither warning of the beginning of a message nor a permanent record of
it. Sitting in his dark room, the operator had to be always on the alert
for the first swing of the spot of light over the scale. To obviate
these drawbacks, Thomson, after some thinking and more talking with his
friend White, of Glasgow, finally patented the _siphon-recorder_, in
which a glass siphon of capillary dimensions is pulled to the right or
left by the action of the current flowing through a light movable coil,
and is thus made to register signals in ink on a vertical strip of paper
which is kept in uniform motion by a train of clockwork. It is by this
simple but very ingenious instrument that messages are received and
recorded to-day at all the cable-stations of the world.
The inaugural message through the cable came from the Directors of the
Atlantic Telegraph Company in Great Britain to the Directors in America,
saying: "Europe and America are united by telegraph; glory to God in the
highest, on earth peace and good will toward men."
The message from Queen Victoria to President Buchanan, consisting of 95
words, took 67 minutes in transmission; it read:
"The Queen desires to congratulate the President upon the successful
completion of this great international work, in which the Queen has
taken the deepest interest.
"The Queen is convinced that the President will join with her in
fervently hoping that the electric cable which now connects Great
Britain with the United States will prove an additional link between the
nations whose friendship is founded upon their common interests and
reciprocal esteem.
"The Queen has much pleasure in thus communicating with the President,
and renewing to him her wishes for the prosperity of the United States."
The reply of President Buchanan was as follows:
"The President cordially reciprocates the congratulations of Her
Majesty, the Queen, on the success of the great international enterprise
accomplished by the science, skill and indomitable energy of the two
countries. It is a triumph more glorious, because far more useful to
mankind, than was ever won by conqueror on the field of battle.
"May the Atlantic telegraph, under the blessing of Heaven, prove to be a
bond of perpetual peace and friendship between the kindred nations, and
an instrument destined by Divine Providence to diffuse religion,
civilization, liberty and law throughout the world. In this view will
not all nations of Christendom spontaneously unite in the declaration
that it shall be forever neutral, and that its communications shall be
held sacred in passing to their places of destination, even in the midst
of hostilities?"
The historian of the enterprise was Mr. John Mullaly, of New York, who
was on the _Niagara_ as secretary to Prof. Morse and subsequently to Mr.
Cyrus W. Field and correspondent of the _New York Herald_. He has
published three interesting works on the subject: a _Trip to
Newfoundland, with an account of the laying of the submarine Cable_
(between Port au Basque and North Sydney), 1855; _The Ocean Telegraph_,
1858; and _The first Atlantic Telegraph Cable_, a pamphlet of 28 pages,
reprinted from the "Journal of the Franklin Institute," 1907. From it,
we learn that Archbishop Hughes was one of the principal American
subscribers to the capital of the Atlantic Cable Company.
When, in 1855, the subject of laying a cable under the Atlantic ocean
began to be seriously considered, Thomson, who was then only 31 years of
age, discussed in a series of masterly papers the theory of signaling
through such conductors, showing _inter alia_ that the instruments used
on land-lines would be inoperative on cables, and also that the same
speed of transmission could not be attained on cables as on ordinary
telegraph lines. It was shown at the same time, that these differences
are due to the fact that, unlike an air-line, the cable is an
electrical _condenser_ in which the copper core is separated from the
waters of the ocean by a layer of gutta percha, a nonconducting
material. As a submerged cable is, therefore, a long Leyden jar of great
electrical capacity, it follows that a signal sent in at the American
end will not reach the other instantly; for while the current flows
along the conductor, it has also to charge up the cable as it
progresses, which operation retards the signals, and also deprives them
of the clearness and sharpness with which they were sent. The phenomenon
is analogous to the diffusion of heat along a bar, the temperature of
the various cross-sections rising in gradual succession until the
distant end is reached. The mathematical investigations of Thomson
showed the necessity of working slowly, and of using weak currents as
well as very delicate receiving instruments. The interval of time
required for the transmission of a signal from Newfoundland to Valentia
is about one second.
Some years later, in 1858, Thomson had the opportunity of putting his
theoretical views to the test of experiment on a grand, commercial
scale, and had the satisfaction of finding that all his conclusions were
confirmed. Electricians of the early period distrusted the inexperienced
young man who had never erected a mile of telegraph line or even served
for a month in a telegraph office; but their distrust was followed by
admiration when they saw the efficient manner in which he handled every
problem and dealt with every difficulty that occurred while laying the
cable of 1858. It was generally admitted that, had it not been for the
brilliant work of the young Glasgow Professor, many years would have
passed away before the Old World and the New would have been brought
into telegraphic communication.
Like all interested in the enterprise, Thomson was greatly shocked when
the news reached him that signals could no longer be transmitted through
the cable, which, after costing so much money, so much thought and
labor, now lay a useless thing in two and a half miles of water.
Attempts were made to raise it, but without success.
During its short life of less than a month, 366 messages were flashed
through the cable, aggregating 4359 words of 21,421 letters.
The failure of the pioneer cable has been attributed to a variety of
causes, chief of which were defective construction and imperfect
paying-out machinery, which produced unequal strains in the cable.
Defective as the cable was at the moment of immersion, the various
troubles became intensified with time, until at last, when provoked by
the feebleness of the signals, the injudicious electrician at Valentia
had recourse to the great penetrative power of the induction coil, and
gave the dying cable the _coup de grâce_.
An experiment made by Mr. Latimer Clark is not only germane to the
subject, but is also of very great interest. Writing from Valentia on
Sept. 12th, 1866, Mr. Latimer Clark says: "With a single galvanic cell,
composed of a few drops of acid in a _silver thimble_[36] and a fragment
of zinc, weighing a grain or two, conversation may easily, though
slowly, be carried on through one of the cables (1865, 1866) or through
the two joined together at Newfoundland; and although in the latter
case, the spark, twice traversing the breadth of the Atlantic, has to
pass through 3700 miles of cable, its effects at the receiving end are
visible in the galvanometer in a little more than a second after contact
is made with the battery. The deflections are not of a dubious
character, but full and long, the spot of light traversing freely a
space of 12 in. or 13 in. on the scale; and it is manifest that a
battery many times smaller would suffice to produce similar effects."
Not to be outdone by the English electrician, Mr. William Dickerson
devised the gun-cap cell, which he used in 1866 with success in
transmitting signals from Heart's Content, Newfoundland, to Valentia on
the Irish coast.
A piece of No. 16 bare copper wire was procured, one end of which was
firmly twisted around the head of an empty _percussion-cap_. To one end
of another similar length of wire was bound, with fine copper wire, a
short strip of zinc bent at a right angle to form the anode element of
the diminutive cell. After charging the cell with a drop of acidulated
water of the size of an ordinary well-formed tear, and properly
connecting the terminals with earth and cable, signals were transmitted
over the cable by the infinitesimal current generated by this novel
cell. The receiving operator reported that the signals were "awfully
small"; but they were intelligible, and messages were successfully
transmitted under the ocean by this tiny element.
Contrast with this Lilliputian cell the enormous power that was used on
the cable of 1858 toward the end of its short existence, when batteries
of 380 and 420 Daniell cells were employed to force signals across.
When, in 1865, it was decided to make another attempt at laying a cable
under the Atlantic, Prof. Thomson, whose reputation was enhanced during
the seven intervening years by a number of communications on the theory
and practice of submarine telegraphy, was again retained as scientific
expert in a consultative sense, with Mr. Cromwell F. Varley as chief
electrician. In accordance with the costly experience that had been
gained, a new cable was made and coiled on board the _Great
Eastern_,[35] a leviathan which was well fitted for the work by the
great man[oe]uvring power afforded by its screw and paddles combined.
Leaving Valentia, the big ship steamed with her prow to the west at a
slow rate of speed, in order to give the cable time to sink beneath the
waves and adapt itself to the configuration of the ocean floor. Eleven
hundred miles had been successfully paid out when, to the consternation
of all, the cable suddenly snapped and disappeared in more than two
miles of water. Attempts were made during the next nine days to recover
it from those abysmal depths; and, though grappled many times during
those trying hours, it gave way each time under the strain to which it
was subjected. Like its predecessors of 1857 and 1858, the cable of 1865
was finally abandoned to its fate, and the _Great Eastern_ returned home
with three greatly disappointed men on board, _viz._, Prof. Thomson, Mr.
C. F. Varley and Captain (later Sir James) Anderson.
In the following year, a sum of three-quarters of a million sterling,
nearly $4,000,000, was offered to the Directors of the "Telegraph
Construction Company" if they would complete the cable of 1865 and lay a
new one. After consultation and careful consideration, the offer was
accepted and the cable constructed according to the best engineering
knowledge available.
In 1866, Prof. Thomson was again on board the _Great Eastern_ with
Captain Anderson; and this time the big ship had snugly coiled up in her
deep, cavernous tanks _the_ cable that was destined to put Europe and
America in permanent telegraphic communication. With a well-manufactured
cable, improved paying-out machinery and an experienced staff of
mechanical engineers, not to mention the foremost electricians of the
day, the immersion of the cable was successfully effected, after which
the American end of the cable of 1865 was raised, a new length spliced
on, and the shore-end safely landed in Trinity Bay. Europe and America
were thus united together by two electric bonds.
It may here be mentioned that ocean cables are usually made in three
sections, called, respectively, the shore-end, the intermediate section
and the deep-sea section. It is clear that the submerged conductor needs
the greatest protection in the shallow water that surrounds the coast,
where it lies on a pebbly or rocky bottom, exposed to the drifting
action of currents and tides, as well as to the haling flukes of the
anchors of storm-tossed ships. In deep water, on the other hand, there
is neither shingly bottom nor violent movement to displace and abrade
the cable; for all is quiet and peaceful in the profound depths where
the god of the trident holds his court; and hence few coverings and a
light armor afford sufficient protection. The wear and tear in the ocean
depths is a vanishing quantity when compared with the abrasive effects
near coast-lines. Looking at the sections of an ocean cable, the biggest
and heaviest is the shore-end, while the thinnest and lightest is that
which goes down into the depths of the sea. The lengths of the various
sections are determined by the survey of the route, which is always
carefully made before completing the specification of the cable.
Moreover, as the position of the cable-ship at noon every day is known
from its longitude and latitude, it follows that the location of the
cable on the bed of the ocean is also exactly known. When a cable is
broken either by an upheaval or by a subsidence of the ocean floor, the
distance of the rupture from the shore end is determined by an
electrical test, after which a repair-ship is dispatched to the spot,
when the cable is lifted, the "fault" cut away, a new length spliced on,
and the amended cable allowed to settle down into its watery depths.
At the present time (July, 1909), there are sixteen cables carrying the
work of the North Atlantic, at an average speed of 20 words a minute
duplex, or 40 words a minute, counting both directions.
This cable narrative affords as striking an illustration of the _triumph
of failure_ as any recorded in the history of human enterprise. It was a
victory of mind over matter; of character and tactfulness, energy and
endurance over difficulties of every kind, moral and financial,
mechanical and meteorological. The four expeditions of 1857, 1858, 1865
and 1866 represent years of hard work, anxiety and distressing failures;
but, sustained by the patience of hope and by an unshaken confidence in
the soundness of the enterprise as well as in the ability of their
staff, the Directors of the Atlantic Company were well rewarded for the
disappointment occasioned and the monetary losses incurred. "It has been
a long struggle," said the initial promoter of the enterprise, Mr. Cyrus
W. Field, speaking at a banquet given in his honor on November 15th,
1866, at the Metropolitan Hotel, New York, "a long struggle of nearly
thirteen years of anxious watching and ceaseless toil. Often my heart
was ready to sink. Many times, when wandering in the forests of
Newfoundland in pelting rain, or on the decks of ships in dark, stormy
nights, I almost accused myself of madness and folly to sacrifice the
peace of my family for what might have proved but a dream. I have seen
my companions, one after another, fall by my side, and I feared that I,
too, might not live to see the end. And yet one hope has led me on; I
prayed that I might not taste of death till the work was accomplished.
That prayer has been answered; and now, beyond all acknowledgments to
men, is the feeling of gratitude to Almighty God."
It was men like Field and Thomson that the poet had in mind when he
wrote:
The wise and active conquer difficulties
By daring to attempt them. Sloth and folly
Shiver and shrink at sight of toil and labor,
And make the impossibility they fear.
Shortly after his return home, Prof. Thomson was knighted for his
splendid services in connection with sub-oceanic cables, and was also
honored with the freedom of the City of Glasgow.
If while journeying over land or sea, Sir William's mind was always
active, his eyes were also open and observant. In the numerous voyages
which he undertook in the interest of cable companies, he seems to have
been struck by the unreliable character of the ordinary apparatus used
in taking soundings, consisting of a heavy weight suspended by a thick
hempen cord unwound from a reel. Owing to the massiveness of the cord,
the motion of the ship and currents in the water would necessarily
deflect it from the vertical, so that the soundings recorded would be
in excess of the true depth. To remedy this defect, Thomson replaced the
rope, at first by a steel wire, and later by a thin strand of steel
wires, on which the speed of the ship has but little effect; the sinker
descends vertically with considerable velocity, and is raised with equal
rapidity by suitable winding-up machinery placed in the stern of the
ship. The sinker carries a gauge consisting of a quill-tube open at the
lower end and closed at the top. The inside, which is coated with silver
chromate, shows by the discoloration produced by the action of the sea
water how far the water has compressed the air in the tube. By
comparison with a graduated ruler, the depth is then read off. When the
sinker reaches bottom, the heavy weight is detached automatically, so
that there is but little strain on the wire as it ascends with its
thermometer and battery of tubes containing samples of the depths
reached.
A story is told in connection with this sounding-machine which shows the
vivacity and wit of the inventor. Having brought his friend Joule into
White's one day, he pointed to a number of coils of steel wire lying on
the floor, informing his English friend of "mechanical-equivalent" fame
at the same time that he intended the wire for sounding purposes. Upon
Joule's innocently asking what note it would sound, he received the
prompt answer, "the deep sea"!
Another subject to which Sir William gave some attention after his
experiences on the ocean is the navigating compass. His observations led
him to distrust the long, heavy needles then in general use on
shipboard. Besides the friction to which the pressure on the pivot gives
rise and which necessarily diminishes the sensitiveness of the needle,
there was another objection, due to the difficulty experienced in
successfully applying steel magnets and soft-iron masses to compensate
for the magnetism of the ship and for the changes induced in it by
change of place in the earth's magnetic field.
As a result, Prof. Thomson devised a compass-card which is remarkable
for its lightness and sensitiveness. It is made of two sets of magnets,
containing four needles each, arranged symmetrically on the right and
left of the pivot. The four needles, forming a set, are of unequal
length, ranging from 3-1/4 to 2 inches, with the shortest outermost.
Such a card, with its associated correctors of steel magnets and
soft-iron balls, has added greatly to the safety and certainty of
navigation; and as such, it is used to-day in the merchant service and
in the navies of most countries of the world.
As we have seen, Thomson had the keen, racy wit of his race. Lecturing
before the members of the Birmingham and Midland Institute in 1883, he
placed himself and his nationality on record in a very humorous way. His
subject was "The six gateways of Knowledge." As will be remembered by
the readers of _The Pilgrim's Progress_, old Bunyan likened the soul to
a citadel on a hill having no means of communication with the outer
world save by live gates, _viz._, the eye gate, the ear gate, the mouth
gate, the nose gate and the feel gate. These are the five senses by
which we obtain our knowledge of the material world which surrounds us.
But Prof. Thomson took issue with Bunyan, with Reid, and the
metaphysicians of all time in maintaining in this lecture that we have
six gateways of knowledge instead of five, justifying the position which
he took by affirming that the sense of touch is really twofold, one of
heat and the other of force. It does not appear, however, that he made
any marked impression on the philosophic thought of the day, for
psychologists continued to write with undisturbed equanimity of the five
senses and not the six.
It was on this occasion that Prof. Thomson said: "The only census of the
senses, so far as I am aware, that ever before made them more than five
was the Irishman's reckoning of seven senses. I presume the Irishman's
seventh sense was common sense; and I believe that the possession of
that virtue by my countrymen, _I speak as an Irishman_, I say the large
possession of the seventh sense which I believe Irishmen have, will do
more to alleviate the woes of Ireland than the removal of 'the
melancholy ocean' which surrounds its shores."
For the successful operation of cables, telegraph lines and scientific
investigations of all sorts, a system of practical electrical units,
accepted by all companies and countries of the world, was soon found to
be indispensable. The pioneer in the movement for establishing an
international system of electrical standards was Mr. J. Latimer Clark,
who, assisted by his distinguished partner, (Sir) Charles Bright,
prepared a paper on "The formation of Standards of Electrical Quantity
and Resistance," which was read at the Manchester meeting of the British
Association in 1861. Prof. Thomson was present; and, at his instance, a
committee was appointed to report on the general question of electrical
units. This was the first meeting of a committee that was destined to
accomplish much in the electric and electromagnetic field; it was the
initial impulse of a movement that brought renown to the entire body of
English electricians. Such units as the ohm, the volt and the farad met
with immediate acceptance, while later on the ampere, the coulomb, the
watt and the joule were introduced. Among the members of this body
besides Prof. Thomson, were such able men as Clerk Maxwell, Joule, Lord
Rayleigh, Sir William Siemens, Johnstone Stoney, Balfour Stewart, and
Carey Foster.
The world is then indebted to the insistence and advocacy of Prof.
Thomson for the general acceptance of the "C.G.S." system of
measurement, which involves the centimeter (length), the gram (mass),
and the second (time) as the fundamental units from which all others are
derived.
Prof. Thomson has claims in the "wireless" field also; for as far back
as 1855, he studied the nature of the discharge of a condenser and
proved mathematically that, under certain conditions easily realized in
practice, such discharges are of an oscillatory character, consisting of
a forward and a backward rush of electricity between the two coatings of
the condenser. As pointed out on page 92, Prof. Henry had reached
the same conclusion in 1842, and Helmholtz in 1847; but Thomson's
insight into the phenomenon is keen and his mathematical analysis of it
very remarkable.
Just as the to-and-fro motions of the prongs of a tuning-fork give rise
to sound-waves in the air, so the electric oscillation due to a
condenser discharge sets up in the universal ether electric waves which
flash the news of the world over continents and oceans with unthinkable
velocity.
By special request, Sir William Thomson gave, in 1884, a course of
lectures at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, to an audience of
"professional fellow-students in physical science," as he called the
_élite_ of American men of science, twenty-one in number, assembled to
hear him. These accomplished physicists he also affectionately called
his "twenty-one coefficients."
The subject was the wave-theory of light, and the object of the lecturer
was to show how far the phenomena of light, such as its transmission,
refraction and dispersion, could be explained within the limits of the
elastic solid theory of the ether, which makes that hypothetical medium
rigid, highly elastic and non-gravitational. From the very first
lecture, Sir William assumed a cold and diffident attitude toward the
rival theory of Clerk Maxwell, which makes light an electromagnetic
phenomenon; and though his own presented formidable difficulties, and
its rival was universally accepted, the veteran Professor assured his
hearers that the elastic solid theory is the "only tenable foundation
for the wave-theory of light in the present (1884) state of our
knowledge."
Despite the energy which he displayed, his luminous argumentation and
close logic, Kelvin made no converts among his "twenty-one
coefficients"; and it soon became evident that he was championing a lost
cause. Newton did the same when he held tenaciously to the corpuscular
theory of light; and in doing so, let it be said, that he retarded the
acceptance of the wave-theory and the advance of science by a hundred
years.
A few years after the Baltimore lectures, official recognition of his
distinguished services and of his eminence in science came to Sir
William Thomson when, in 1892, he was raised to the peerage, with the
title of Baron Kelvin of Netherhall, Kelvin being the name of a stream
which passes near the buildings of the University of Glasgow and flows
into the Clyde, while Netherhall is that of his country-seat at Largs,
in Ayrshire, 40 miles from Glasgow.
As to the structure of matter, Kelvin lived to see the "atom" of his
youth and mature years shattered into fragments, and the atomic theory
of matter rapidly yielding to the electronic. Though he maintained an
open mind toward the new school of physics, he was reserved and
conservative toward the revolutionary doctrine of extreme
radio-activists. He did not believe in the transformation of one
elementary form of matter into another; and he strenuously combated the
theory of the spontaneous disintegration of the atom.
Notwithstanding a long life devoted to the study of mathematical and
experimental physics, during which Kelvin unraveled many a difficult
problem in electricity and magnetism and added many a beautiful skein to
the texture of our knowledge in electrostatics and electrokinetics, that
illustrious man, the acknowledged leader in physical science, made a
public admission in 1896 which caused a great stir throughout the
scientific world. It was on the occasion of the celebration of the
golden jubilee of his professorship of natural philosophy in the
University of Glasgow. Delegates had come from all parts of the world;
kings and princes had sent their representatives; universities and
learned societies of every country of the Old World and the New vied
with one another in doing honor to the scientist who had figured so long
and so conspicuously in the advances of the age. It was on that solemn
occasion and in presence of such a notable assembly that Kelvin made the
astonishing admission that, although he had been a diligent student of
electricity and magnetism for a period exceeding fifty years, and
although he had pondered every day for forty years over the nature of
the ether and the constitution of matter, he knew no more about their
essence, about what they really are, than he knew at the beginning of
his professional work.
This confession, remarkable by reason of the man who made it and the
circumstances in which it was made, has always appeared to the writer of
these lines as having more of the ring of disappointment in it than of
blank failure. Kelvin's great analytical mind early and persistently
strove to penetrate the closely guarded secrets of nature; and because
Dame Nature did not yield to his open sesame, but persisted in her
reticence, the philosopher grew pessimistic and disappointed; and, under
the sway of such feelings, he summed up the result of his life-quest
after the ultimate problems in science and pronounced it a "failure."
A "failure" it was not, if science is the discovery and registration of
the laws of God as revealed in the universe of mind and matter; for few
men of his generation, if any, made more contributions of the first
order to the theory of electrostatics, to the doctrine of energy, to
hydrodynamics and the thermo-electric properties of matter. This note of
disappointment, or wail of despondency, had been sounded before by
Faraday, who said that, the more he studied electrical phenomena, the
less he seemed to know about electricity itself. Was not Laplace
animated by a kindred feeling when he spoke about the infinitude of our
ignorance? Lastly, was not this intense feeling of our limited powers
precisely that which, after all his discoveries in mathematics, in
optics and in celestial mechanics, made Newton compare himself to a
child standing on the beach with the vast ocean of truth before him,
unfathomed and unexplored?
Kelvin gave a beautiful example to the world when, after resigning the
chair which he had occupied for fifty-five years in the University of
Glasgow, he immediately proceeded to enter his name on the undergraduate
list, intimating by such an act that, whether a man is a
professor-in-ordinary of natural philosophy or a professor emeritus, he
must ever be a student, in close touch with nature.
Lord Kelvin had the happiness of enjoying good health throughout all the
years of his long career, a happiness due in part to nature, and in part
also to the simplicity, frugality and regularity of his life.
As already said, he was fond of cruising in European waters in his yacht
_Lalla Rookh_ during the summer months, and even venturing out on the
Atlantic as far as Madeira, for,
He loved the sea, and what is more,
He loved it best when far from shore.
In later years, however, owing to facial neuralgia, he was accustomed to
spend a month or so every summer with Lady Kelvin at Aix-les-Bains, from
which visits he always derived much benefit.
While making some experiments in a corridor of his beautiful home at
Netherhall, he caught a chill on November 23d, 1907, from which he never
rallied, despite the cares and attentions that were fondly lavished upon
him. The bulletins that were issued concerning his condition were read
all the world over with more concern than if they referred to a reigning
sovereign or an heir apparent. Every teacher of physics, mathematical
or experimental; every man interested in the advance of science and the
spread of knowledge, anxiously awaited news from the sick-room of the
illustrious patient--news that was transmitted to the ends of the earth
by the siphon-recorder invented by the dying scientist in the heyday of
his life; and when the word came that Kelvin had breathed his last, that
cablegram brought universal sorrow for the quenching of the brightest
light of the age and the loss of the leading scientist, the model man
and faithful Christian.
It was in the fitness of things that the man who was considered the
greatest since Newton should be buried in Westminster Abbey, and that
the mortal remains of Lord Kelvin should find a resting-place next to
the grave of the genius who thought out the _Principia_ and discovered
the gravitational law which governs the planetary as well as the stellar
universe.
If asked to say what impressed me most in Lord Kelvin, I would mention
the cordial manner in which he welcomed those who sought advice; the
encouragement which he held out to students; his absolute devotion to
truth; his fair-mindedness and candor; his reverence in dealing with the
problems of the soul and the destiny of man; and the uniform, tranquil
happiness of his life, due, under God, to his profound religious belief
and noble Christian life.
A man of strong convictions, Kelvin did not, however, wear his religion
on his sleeve, but treasured it in the depths of his heart, where it was
never disturbed by the tossing and ever-changing wave-forms of
individual opinion. He quietly but uniformly maintained that physical
science demands the existence and action of creative power; and he did
not shrink from affirming this conviction whenever circumstances seemed
to require it, as was the case on the memorable occasion of his
Presidential address to the members of the British Association in 1871.
In concluding that brilliant discourse, he said: "But strong,
overpowering proofs of intelligent and benevolent design lie all around
us; and if ever perplexities, whether metaphysical or scientific, turn
us away from them for a time, they come back upon us with irresistible
force, showing to us, through nature, the influence of free will, and
teaching us that all living beings depend on one ever-acting Creator and
Ruler."
Once when particularly disgusted with the materialistic views of those
who, while denying the existence of a Creator, attributed the wonders of
nature, animate and inanimate, to the potency of a fortuitous concourse
of atoms, he wrote to Liebig, asking him if a leaf or a flower could be
formed or even made grow by chemical forces, to which he received the
significant reply from the famous chemist of Giessen: "I would more
readily believe that a book on chemistry or on botany could grow out of
dead matter by chemical processes."
We have already referred to the custom which obtained in the University
of Glasgow, of beginning the daily sessions by invoking the blessing of
heaven on the work about to be undertaken. Having liberty in the matter
of choice, Prof. Thomson selected for this purpose a prayer from the
morning service of the Church of England, which reads: "O Lord, our
heavenly Father, almighty and everlasting God, who hast safely brought
us to the beginning of this day; defend us in the same with Thy mighty
power; and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any
kind of danger; but that all our doings may be ordered by Thy
governance, to do always what is righteous in Thy sight; through Jesus
Christ, our Lord, Amen."
Academical honors were showered upon Lord Kelvin by seats of learning,
ancient and modern; he was a D. C. L. Oxford, LL. D. Cambridge, and a D.
Sc. London; he was President of the Royal Society from 1890 to 1895;
President of the British Association in 1871; Knight of the Prussian
Order _Pour le Mérite_, and Foreign Associate of the _Institut de
France_.
His published works include a "Treatise on Natural Philosophy," 2 vols.,
written in collaboration with Prof. Tait, of Edinburgh (the two authors
were often referred to as T and T'); "Contributions to Electrostatics
and Magnetism"; "Collected mathematical and physical Papers," 3 vols.;
"Popular Lectures and Addresses," 3 vols.; and the "Baltimore Lectures."
These, as well as the instruments which he devised for navigation, for
the finest work of the laboratory, as well as for the commercial
measurement of current, potential, and energy, form a monument to Lord
Kelvin that will be _aere perennius_.
BROTHER POTAMIAN.
FOOTNOTES:
[35] Water was decomposed in 1789 by Van Troostwijk and
Cuthberson, by means of sparks from an electrical machine. Prof. Ostwald
considers this the first instance of the decomposition of a chemical
compound by electricity.
[36] The thimble was borrowed from Miss Fitzgerald, daughter of
the Knight of Kerry, who was living at Valentia.
[37] Broken up a few years ago for scrap iron.
INDEX.
A
Abbey, Westminster, 393
Academical honors, 395
Academy of Science, Royal, 202
Action at a distance, 356
Adams Prize, 339
Addison, 215, 216
Advancement of learning, 65
Affinity, 70
Agonic line, 22, 23
Akenside, 216
Albert the Great, 36
Albertus Magnus, 70
Alibert, 159
Aldin, 141, 207
Alfonso el Sabio, 8
Almanack, Poor Richard's, 103
Ampère, Jean Jacques, 233, 210, 232, 361
Amperean currents, 214
Amundsen, 30, 51
Anaesthesia, 308
Anaxagoras, 244
Anatomy, Comparative, 136
Ancients in the exact sciences, 1
Anderson, 381
Anelectrica, 70
Animal electricity, 146, 149, 175, 205, 320
Annus mirabilis, 86
Apollonius, 244
Arago, 177, 232, 243
Archimedes, 1, 13, 139, 244, 213;
burning mirror, 14
Architecture, 199
Architectonics of metaphysics, 222
Aristarchus of Samos, 53
Aristotle, 52
Arsinoe, Queen, 5
Aspects of pain, 352
Assisi, Poor little man of, 161
Atheism, 160
Atlantic Telegraph Co., 373
Atoms, 355
Attraction and repulsion, 197
Auenbrugger, 274
Autobiography of Franklin, 126
Ayrton, 369
B
Bacon, Chancellor, 13
Bacon, Roger, 3, 10, 64
Balance, Electric, 200
Balancing of energies, 331
Baltimore lecture, 395
Barlowe, Wm., 40, 70, 326
Barometer, 70
Barrett, Father, 254
Bassi, Laura, 154
Battery, Voltaic, 206
Bauernfeind, 292
Baxter, Richard, 359
Bear, Little, 24
Bede, 54
Beet sugar, 306
Bembo, Cardinal, 215
Bence Jones, 333
Bernoulli, 236, 245, 348
Bernoulli, Daniel, 280
Bernoulli, Johann, 280
Bertelli, 27
Bertholinus, 147
Berthollet, 224
Beuve, Saint, 253
Bevis, 95
Biot, 198, 203, 224
Birds' ears; kidneys; semi-circular canals, 137
Boethius, 54
Bolivar, 255
Bond, 70
Bose, 87
Boyle, 70, 301
Brewster, Sir David, 218
Briggs, 50
Bright, Sir Charles, 387
Brook Taylor, 280
Browne, Sir Thomas, 70
Brugnatelli, Prof., 179
Brunetto Latini, 9
Buffon, 14, 99, 132
Bunyan, 386
Burning mirror, 14
Byron, 328
C
Cabanis, 246
Cabeo, 3, 26, 73
Cable, submarine, 362;
telegraph, 322
Cabot, Sebastian, 23
Calculus of variations, 245
Canada balsam, 348
Canals, Semi-circular, 348
Canton, 91
Carthesian ovals, 337
Carminate, Prof., 141
Cascade, 90
Cassini, 26
Cavallo, 26
Cavendish, 93, 101, 173, 338;
Laboratory, 340
Cayley, 364
Cell, Gun-cap, 380
Charles, Law of, 173, 224
Chelonian, Complaisant, 52
Chemical manipulation, 307
Childe Harold, 328
Christianity, 257
Chrystal, 258
Churchmen in Science, 162
Cingari, 153
Circle, Graduated, 19
Circuit, 70
Clark, Latimer, 218, 387
Clausius, 348
Clergymen Pioneers in Electricity, 162
Clerk Maxwell, 32, 94, 324
Clerk of Penicuik, 335
Cluny, 8
Coffin of Mahomet, 5
Coleridge, 261, 328
Collinson, Peter, 81
Color vision, 345
Columbian line, 23
Columbus, 21, 23;
on electricity, 208
Como, College of, 172
Compass-card, 386;
variation of the, 25
Concentration, 367
Concourse of atoms, 394
Conference of St. Vincent de Paul, 254
Contributions to molecular physics, 285
Copernicus, 54
Copley medal, 284
Coulomb, 84, 93, 188;
character, 203;
memoirs, 199
Creator and Ruler, 394
Creatures, 331
Crookes, 86, 246
Cumming, 70
Cunatus, 87
Current, Oscillatory, 206
Curves, Rolling, 337
Cuthberson, 361
Cuvier, 252, 224
Cynosure, 24
D
Dante, 161
Darwin, 227, 327, 351
Davy, Sir Humphry, 303, 326
Davy, 209, 306
D'Alembert, 280
D'Alibard, 99, 106
De Causis et Sedibus Morborum, 167
Declination, 21
De Civitate Dei, 5
Degrees and residence, 205
De Heer, 284
Dellman, 286
De Magnete, 35
De Mundo Nostro, 61
De Mundo Nostro Sublunari, 63
De Natura Rerum, 2
De Romas, 107
De Vi Attractiva, 170
De Viribus Electricitatis, 141
Development, Process of, 228
Devotion, Life of, 231
Dewar, 41
Dickerson, William, 380
Didactic lecture, 295
Digby, Sir Kenelen, 40
Dip-circle, 30
Discoveries by accident, 311;
in science, 283;
new, 251;
practical, 213
Disposer, Great, 332
Divinia Commedia, 161
Divisch, 107
Dobereiner's lamp, 173
Dryden, 65
Dubois, Reymond, 298
Dufay, 83, 95
Dumas, 290
Dynamics of bodies, 291
E
Earth's magnetism, 22
Earthquakes and electricity, 148
Earthquakes and magnetism, 315
Ear of the bird, 139
Elastic solids, 337
Electrica, 70
Electrical bumper, 96;
jack, 95;
pistol, 172;
treatment, 147;
tube, 81
Electricitatis, 134
Electric light, 316;
matter, 92;
motor, 76
Electricity, 70
Electro-dynamics, 250
Electromagnet, 70
Electro-magnetics, 250
Electro-magnetism, 70
Electro-magnetismos, 41
Electron, 86
Electronic theory, 85
Electrophorus, 171
Electroscope, 171
Epilepsy, 292
Epitaph of Franklin, 129
Eratosthenes, 1
Ether, 309;
universal, 60
Euclid, 1
Eudiometer, 172
Eugénie, Empress, 310
Euler, 107, 236, 280
Ewing, 42
Examination of conscience, 79
Existence, History of, 247;
of God, 354
F
Failure, Triumph of, 283, 391
Faith, Confession of, 186
Faraday, 32, 41, 189, 298, 338, 361, 366;
eloquence, 323;
marriage, 329;
money making, 309;
notebooks, 302, 317;
parents, 300;
passing of, 332;
perseverance, 318;
poverty, 300;
statement of law, 314
Faraday-Maxwell Theory, 344
Father of Mercies, 327
Father of Pathology, 167
Fechner, 276, 284
Fénelon, 235
Fichte, 324
Field, Cyrus W., 322, 377, 384
Field of force, 42
Filial tributes, 267
Flavio Gioja, 20
Foster, Carey, 388
Foucault, 55
Fourier, 363
Fowler, 149
Francis I., Emperor, 110
Franklin, 68, 77;
and Paine, 128
Franklinian rods, 115
Franz, Father, 110
Freedom of the Press, 225
Free will, 352, 394
Fresnel, 251, 361
Frog dancing master, 151
Fuller, 65
Fulminating pane, 89
Future, Truth of, 331
G
Galileo, 40, 245
Gateway of Knowledge, 386
Galtoni, Father, 16, 8
Galvani, 133, 205, 211;
anticipation of original experiment, 144;
Madame, 141;
the physician, the teacher, 151;
wife, 140
Galvanometer, 70, 375
Garnett, 339
Gasser, 28
Gauss, 271, 375
Gay-Lussac, 209
Gellibrand, 26, 49
Genius, Precocious, 234
Geometry, 1; and intellectual culture, 267, 268
Gilbert, 3, 13, 26, 32
Giliani, Alessandra, 155
Gioja, 200
Gladstone, 236, 332
Glass harmonica, 115
God disposes, 289
Goethe, 222
Graduation, Early, 165
Graft, 192
Graham, 26
Gray, Stephen, 77;
Prof. Andrew, 369
Great Eastern, 382
Green, 70
Gregory, 244
Grind, 263
Guericke, Otto von, 74
Guyot de Provins, 7
Gymnotus electricus, 150
Gyrostat, 372
H
Hakewill, 216
Hallam, 36
Hamilton, 76
Handy-men, 273
Hansteen, 208
Happy in life, 355
Hartmann, 26, 31
Harvey, 133, 334
Hauksbee, 74
Haüy, Abbé, 224
Headaches, 52
Helmholtz, 279, 321, 366
Heis, 271
Henry, 214, 361; Joseph, 92, 206, 284, 388
Herapath, 348
Herschel, Sir John, 225
Hertzian waves, 342
Hippocrates, 244
Hobby, 345
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 262
Homer, 235
Horace, 204, 355
Hottentots, 129
Hunter, John, 138
Huyghens, 244
Hymn to Mont Blanc, 328
I
Identity of lightning and electricity, 98
Il mago benefico, 184
Imitation of Christ, 255
Inclination, 70
Induction, 311;
theory of, 311;
sparks, 316
Institute of France, 202
Interference, Phenomena of, 287
Iron filings, 3;
raspings of, 2
Isidore of Seville, 54
Isomagnetic lines, 24
Invisible things of God, 331
Izarn, 207
J
Jacobi, 284
Jesuit gymnasium, 270
Johns Hopkins University, 389
Joule, 385, 388
K
Kant, 119, 260
Kelvin, Lord, 139, 228, 258
Kepler, 40, 333
Kidneys of the bird, 136
Kinnersley, 83
Kircher, 26, 41, 70
Kite incident, 131;
lightning, 121
Klaproth, 7, 224
Kleist, Dean von, 87
Klopstock, 223
Kneller, Father, 177
Knowledge, subjective and objective, 247
Koerner, 223, 265
Kohlrausch, 286
L
Laboratory, First physical, 368
Laennec, 139
Lagrange, 244, 343
Lamont, 270
Larmor, Dr. Joseph, 66
Langberg, 287
Langsdorff, 260
Languages, Special gift for, 167
Laplace, 254, 391
Learning, A little, 160
Lectures to the working people, 350
Leibnitz, 245
Lejeune Dirichlet, 271
Lenz, 284
Lesage, 219
Lessing, 222
Leverrier, 251
Libri, 27
Light an electric phenomenon, 344;
polarized, 316
Lightning conductor, The Divisch, 111;
kite, 121;
rods, 101, 104, 114;
storm, 116
Life, Future, 331;
happiness, 355
Lines of magnetic force, 313
Linnæus, 238
Livius Sanutus, 49
Livres dou Tresor, 9
Lockwood, Thomas D., 275
Lodestone, 2
Lodge, Sir Oliver, 71, 246
Lombroso, 246
Lor, M. de, 122
Lucretius, 2, 167
Ludwig I., 278
Lucan, 235
M
Mackenzie, Colin, 358
Machines, Simple, 192, 199
Magaud, 187
Magiae Naturalis, 35
Magic, Natural, 215
Magnes, Loadstone challenge, 34
Magnetic declination, 47;
dip, 29;
fields, 42, 313;
figures, 3;
inclination, 31;
meridian, 45;
motor, 16
Magnet and Chinese, 7;
flesh, 5;
gold, 6;
polarity of, 4;
white, 6
Magnetism, 70, 202;
into electricity, 315
Magnetismus, 40
Magnetization, Permanent, 206
Magnetometer, 44
Mahomet's sarcophagus, 65
Makers of Modern Medicine, 13
Malebranche, 248
Man proposes, 289
Manzolini, Madame, 154
Marcet, Mrs., 301
Maria Theresa, 110
Mariotte, 245
Marriage, Faraday's, 329
Marshall, Chas., 218
Martinique, 191
Martius, 298
Mass and weight, 56;
of the earth, 58
Mathematics, Without a taste for, 262
Matter and force, 320;
ultimate structure of, 282;
al tripos, 364
Maxwell, 313, 388;
the man, 359
Memberships, Honorary, 332
Memory, Wonderful, 236
Menon, Abbé, 77
Mental powers and morals, 331
Message, Inaugural, 376
Metaphysics, 247, 222
Meteorological machine, 112
Mind, Concentration of, 169
Mirror, Galvanometer, 375
Mitchell, John, 84, 189
Mojon, 207
Molecular torrent, 86
Molecules, 353
Money-making, Faraday on, 309
Monge, 224
Montucla, 244
Morality, Absolute, 247
Morrison, Charles, 218
Motion, Perpetual, 18
Moscow, 265
Mottelay, P. Fleury, 66
Mullaly, John, 377
Müller, Johann, 338
Mullock, Bishop, 373
Muscle-twitchings, 175
Musschenbroek, 86, 211
Myopia, 239
N
Napoleon, 179, 202, 247
Near-sightedness, 239
Negative, 126
Neptune, 251
Newe Attractive, 33
Newman, Cardinal, 353
Newton, 74, 139, 197, 244, 333, 389;
Principia, 62, 208
Nollet, Abbé, 77, 95, 101, 170
Norman, 29, 59
Novum Organum, 13
O
Oersted, 208, 232, 249;
discusses evolution, 227
Ohm, Martin, 262, 270
Ohm's law, 189, 251, 258;
of acoustics, 282;
goodness of heart, 296
Ohm's personal appearance, 293;
preface, 274
Olbers, 224
Opus Majus, 10
Opus Tertiam, 12
Orb of virtue, 33
Orchestrion, 115
Origin of Species, 227
Ostwald, 361
Oval curves, 337
Ozanam, 253
P
Paine, 127
Palladius, 5
Paralysis, 148
Paris, Dr., 304
Parkinson, 365
Pascal, 256
Pasteur, 185, 282, 310
Pavia, University of, 173
Pellagra, 184
Pellico, Sylvio, 187
Peregrinus, 3, 8, 11
Perry, Prof. John, 369
Pfaff, 276
Philosopher of Copenhagen, 210
Philosophia Magnetica, 3
Philosophical Society, 307
Philosophy, Small draughts of, 160
Physics text-book, 291
Pierre le Pélérin, 12
Pile, 205
Pivoted compass, 9
Plagiarism, 63
Planta, Martin de, 74
Plato, 1, 213
Pliny, 4
Poet and scientist, 323
Poem, Mathematical, 364
Poggendorff, 276, 284, 375
Pohl, 276
Poincaré, 344
Polaric, 24
Polarity, 4, 200
Polarization, 200
Polyhedrons, 244
Pope Alexander VI., 24;
Clement IV., 10;
Paul III., 54;
Leo X., 215
Popularization of science, 350
Porta, 215
Positive, 126
Potential, 70
Potato, 174
Pouillet, 284
Power, Feeble directive, 51
Preece, Sir William, 107
Premonstratensian Order, 107
Premonition, 266
Priestley, 106, 121, 167, 171, 231
Pringle, Sir John, 101
Priority in discoveries, 133
Prometheus, Modern, 119
Providence, 327;
particular, general, 127
Pseudodoxia Epidemica, 70
Psychology, 246
Ptolemy, 54
Q
Quacks, 52
Quackery, 149
R
Radowitz, General, 278
Rainbow, 333
Ramsay, Sir Wm., 369
Ramsden, 74
Rayleigh, Lord, 388
Raymond Lully, 10
Reid, 368
Religion, 129
Republic, Cis-Alpine, 156
Repulsion, Magnetic, 2
Resurrection, 129
Retina, 348
Richet, 246
Richmann, 106
Righi, 71
Ritter, 224
Robespierre, 114
Roentgen, 211
Romagnosi, 206
Ronaldo, 219
Ross, Sir James, 30
Rotch, 104
Rousseau, 238
Rowland, 94
Rush, Benjamin, 165
S
Sacchetti, 153
Samothracian rings, 3
Saturn's Rings, 339
Scarpa, 137
Schelling, 224
Schiller, 223
Schlegel, 223
Schweigger, 273
Science and free will, 352;
and religion, 185;
classification of, 252;
experimental, 37;
high priest of, 295
Sebec, 281
Secular variation, 49
Semi-circular canals, 138
Senses, Seven, 387
Series, 90
Seventh Sense, 387
Shakespeare's Cliff, 329
Siena, Cathedral, 115
Siger, 17
Silurus electricus, 150
Siphon-recorder, 375
Skill, Mechanical, 273
Smith's Prize, 336, 365
Snell, 244
Sophocles, 355
Soundings of deep sea, 384
Sound, Perception of, 282
Southey, 8
Spectator, 215
Spence, Dr., 82
Sphere, Electrified, 198
Spirit of mathematical analysis, 262
Squaring of the circle, 243
Saint Aloysius, 134;
Augustine, 53, 254;
Francis, Third Order of, 161;
Thomas, 63
Saint-Hilaire, Geoffroy, 252
Statics, 199
Stereoscope, Real image, 348
Stethoscope, 139
Stevin, 49
Stewart, Balfour, 388
Stimmen aus Maria-Laach, 177
Stokes, 364
Stoney, 388
Strada, 216
Strain in the ether, 356
Structure of physical bodies, 282
Stuber, Dr., 119
Sturgeon, 70
Sugar from beet-root, 306
Sulzer, 176
Superfluous, Elimination of, 283
Suspension of the earth, 60
Swammerdam, 144
T
Taisnier, 26, 63
Tait, 334, 337, 342
Tampering with the lodestone, 6
Tandem, 90
Taprobane, 5
Tasso, 166, 235
Taylor's scientific memoirs, 276
Telephone, 70
Terrella, 44
Terrestrial magnetism, 51
Terror, Reign of, 201
Test-nail method, 44
Text-books, Maxwell's, 349
Thales, 2
Theory of induction, 314;
of the Leyden-jar, 88;
two-fluid, 126
Thévenot, 20
Thimble-cell, 379
Thompson, James, 362;
Silvanus P., 27, 63, 80, 371;
Wm., 361
Thunderbolt, 117
Toaldo, Padre, 115
Torpedo, 150
Torsion balance, 84, 188
Torque, 200
Tripos, 365
Truth of the future, 331
Twitchings of frogs, 135
Tycho Brahé, 68
Tyndall, 299
U
Uhland, 223, 265
Understanding and personal investigation, 268
University degrees, 265
Unworkable, 357;
extension, 225
Uranus, 251
V
Van Helmont, 70
Van Troostwijk, 361
Variation of the compass, 21
Vaults, The statics of, 191
Venedey, 271
Venturoli, 156
Verses, Latin, 239
Virchow, 293
Virgil, 166
Virgilius, 53
Vitry, Cardinal Jacques de, 8
Volta, 162;
anticipation of, 176;
faith, 186;
honored, 180;
piety;183;
pile, 177
Voltaic pile, 176
Voltaire, 235
Vortex, 372
W
Wallace, 244, 246
Watson, 70, 95
Waves, Hertzian, 342
Wealth, Three ways to, 127
Weber, 342
Weight, Accidental, 57;
and mass of the earth, 56, 58
Wenckebach, 21
Werner, 224
Wheatstone, 70
Wilson, Dr. Benjamin, 101
Wimshurst, 74
Windmills, 199
Winkelmann, 222
Winkler, 91
Works, sham, pilfered, distorted, 63;
under-water, 99
Worthies of England, 65
Y
Young, 313
Z
Zák, Father Alphons, 108
FORDHAM UNIVERSITY PRESS SERIES
MAKERS OF MODERN MEDICINE--A series Of Biographies of the men to whom we
owe the important advances in the development of modern medicine. By
James J. Walsh, M. D., Ph. D., LL.D., Dean and Professor of the History
of Medicine at Fordham University School of Medicine, N. Y. Second
Edition, 1909. 362 pp. Price, $2.00 net.
_The London Lancet_ said: "The list is well chosen, and we have to
express gratitude for so convenient and agreeable a collection of
biographies, for which we might otherwise have to search through many
scattered books. The sketches are pleasantly written, interesting, and
well adapted to convey the thoughtful members of our profession just the
amount of historical knowledge that they would wish to obtain. We hope
that the book will find many readers."
_The New York Times_: "The book is intended primarily for students of
medicine, but laymen will find it not a little interesting."
_Il Morgagni_ (Italy): "Professor Walsh narrates important lives in
modern medicine with an easy style that makes his book delightful
reading. It certainly will give the young physician an excellent idea of
who made our modern medicine."
_The Lamp_: "This exceptionally interesting book is from the practiced
hand of Dr. James J. Walsh. It is a suggestive thought that each of the
great specialists portrayed were god-fearing men, men of faith, far
removed from the shallow materialism that frequently flaunts itself as
inherently worthy of extra consideration for its own sake."
_The Church Standard_ (_Protestant Episcopal_): "There is perhaps no
profession in which the lives of its leaders would make more fascinating
reading than that of medicine, and Dr. Walsh by his clever style and
sympathetic treatment by no means mars the interest which we might thus
expect."
_The New York Medical Journal_: "We welcome works of this kind; they are
evidence of the growth of culture within the medical profession, which
betokens that the time has come when our teachers have the leisure to
look backward to what has been accomplished."
_Science_: "The sketches are extremely entertaining and useful. Perhaps
the most striking thing is that everyone of the men described was of the
Catholic faith, and the dominant idea is that great scientific work is
not incompatible with devout adherence to the tenets of the Catholic
religion."
THE POPES AND SCIENCE--The story Of the Papal Relations to Science from
the Middle Ages down to the Nineteenth Century. By James J. Walsh, M.
D., Ph. D., LL.D. 440 pp. Price, $2.00 net.
PROF. PAGEL, Professor of History at the University of Berlin: "This
book represents the most serious contribution to the history of medicine
that has ever come out of America."
SIR CLIFFORD ALLBUTT, Regius Professor of Physic at the University of
Cambridge (England): "The book as a whole is a fair as well as a
scholarly argument."
_The Evening Post_ (New York) says: "However strong the reader's
prejudice...he cannot lay down Prof. Walsh's volume without at
least conceding that the author has driven his pen hard and deep into
the 'academic superstition' about Papal Opposition to science." In a
previous issue it had said: "We venture to prophesy that all who swear
by Dr. Andrew D. White's History of the Warfare of Science With Theology
in Christendom will find their hands full, if they attempt to answer Dr.
James J. Walsh's The Popes and Science."
_The Literary Digest_ said: "The book is well worth reading for its
extensive learning and the vigor of its style."
_The Southern Messenger_ says: "Books like this make it clear that it is
ignorance alone that makes people, even supposedly educated people,
still cling to the old calumnies."
_The Nation_ (New York) says: "The learned Fordham Physician has at
command an enormous mass of facts, and he orders them with logic, force
and literary ease. Prof. Walsh convicts his opponents of hasty
generalizing if not anti-clerical zeal."
_The Pittsburg Post_ says: "With the fair attitude of mind and
influenced only by the student's desire to procure knowledge, this book
becomes at once something to fascinate. On every page authoritative
facts confute the stereotyped statement of the purely theological
publications."
PROF. WELCH, of Johns Hopkins, quoting Martial, said: "It is pleasant
indeed to drink at the living fountain-heads of knowledge after
previously having had only the stagnant pools of second-hand authority."
PROF. PIERSOL, Professor of Anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania,
said: "I have been reading the book with the keenest interest, for it
indeed presents many subjects in what to me at least is a new light.
Every man of science looks to the beacon--truth--as his guiding mark,
and every opportunity to replace even time-honored misconceptions by
what is really the truth must be welcomed."
_The Independent_ (New York) said: "Dr. Walsh's books should be read in
connection with attacks upon the Popes in the matter of science by those
who want to get both sides."
OTHER BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR
FORDHAM UNIVERSITY PRESS SERIES
MAKERS OF MODERN MEDICINE (second thousand). Lives of the dozen men to
whom nineteenth century medical science owes most. Cloth, octavo, 362
pp., with portrait of Pasteur. New York, 1907: second edition, 1909.
$2.00, net.
THE POPES AND SCIENCE (second thousand). The history of The Papal
Relations to Science during the Middle Ages and down to our own time.
New York, 1908. $2.00, net.
OLD-TIME MAKERS OF MEDICINE, in preparation. To be issued Winter, 1909.
MAKERS OF ASTRONOMY, in preparation.
THE DOLPHIN PRESS SERIES
CATHOLIC CHURCHMEN IN SCIENCE (first series). Lives of Seven Catholic
Ecclesiastics who were among the great founders of science. The Dolphin
Press, Philadelphia, 1906. Price, $1.00, net.
CATHOLIC CHURCHMEN IN SCIENCE (second series). Lives of four great
clerical founders in science and clerical pioneers in electricity and
Jesuit astronomers. The Dolphin Press, Philadelphia, 1909. Price, $1.00,
net.
* * * * *
THE THIRTEENTH GREATEST OF CENTURIES (second edition, third thousand).
The story of the rise of the universities, and of the origin of modern
art, letters, science, liberty and democracy in a single century.
Catholic Summer School Press, New York, 1907. $2.50, net.
IN COLLABORATION
ESSAYS IN PASTORAL MEDICINE. O'Malley and Walsh. Medical information for
pastors, superiors and nurses, and applications of ethical principles
for physicians, judges, lawyers, etc. Longmans, Green & Co. (fourth
thousand), New York, 1906. $2.50, net.
Transcriber's Notes:
Page 5, "passings" changed to "passing" (...nails from passing ships and
how wooden pegs were substituted for nails in vessels...)
Page 27, "Conville" changed to "Gonville" (Gonville and Caius,
Cambridge)
Page 36, added word "of" (...contribute effectively to the advancement
of learning.)
Page 98, changed "Philosphical" to "Philosophical" (Philosophical
Transactions)
Page 145, changed "formal" to "former" (...the muscle will recover the
former motion...)
Page 169, changed "inadventently" to "inadvertently" (...miss meals, and
inadvertently to put off...)
Page 206, changed "cicumstances" to "circumstances" (...that, under
ordinary circumstances, all...)
Page 246, changed two cases of "pyschology" to "psychology" (...widely
known as students of psychology, of whom...); (...great a passion for
psychology, and...)
Page 266, changed "Allegmeine" to "Allgemeine" (...German biographer in
the Allgemeine Deutsche...)
Page 296, changed "know" to "known" (...who had known him
intimately:...)
Page 319, changed "galvonometer" to "galvanometer" (...machine deflected
the needle of his galvanometer in the...)
Page 340, changed "Abderdeen" to "Aberdeen" (...physical sciences, at
Marischal College, Aberdeen.)
Page 367, changed "realtive" to "relative" (...thoughts that occurred
relative to problems...)
Page 368, changed "suface" to "surface" (...as we go below the earth's
surface, he...)
Page 400, changed numerical order of index entry "Henry; Joseph"
Page 400, changed "Keppler" to "Kepler"
Page 401, added missing page reference "65" to "Mahomet; sarcophagus"
Page 402, changed "Poggendorf" to "Poggendorff"
Page 404, changed alphabetical order of "Winkelmann"
Advertising material originally located at beginning of text moved to end.