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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



THE PEOGKESS OF SCIENCE. 



LORD KELVIN IN AMERICA. 



The ways of a democracy must ap- 

 pear past finding out to those who 

 observe us from a distance. When 

 Prince Henry visited the United States 

 the newspapers devoted half their 

 space to the event; yet it might be 

 supposed that Emperor William, the 

 energetic, would come to America, if 

 he wished to extend to us the social 

 etiquette of foreign nations, and that 

 we should regard with slight interest 

 a lesser royal guest. When the great- 

 est living Anglo-Saxon man of science 

 visits us, the event passes unnoticed 

 by the general public; yet Lord Kel- 

 vin's contributions to the applications 

 of electricity, and especially his con- 

 nection with the trans-Atlantic cable, 

 might be expected to attract general 

 attention. 



Lord Kelvin has, of course, been cor- 

 dially welcomed by his scientific col- 

 leagues. He accepted an invitation 

 extended by wireless telegraphy to 

 attend the installation of President 

 Butler at Columbia University, and on 

 April 21 he was entertained at the 

 University by the national societies 

 concerned with the physical sciences 

 Professor F. B. Crocker presided, and 

 addresses of welcome were made by 

 President Butler; by Professor Elihu 

 Thomson, representing the American 

 Institution of Electrical Engineers; by 

 Professor A. G. Webster, representing 

 the American Physical Society, and by 

 Professor R. S. Woodward, represent- 

 ing the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science and other 

 scientific societies. Lord Kelvin in his 

 reply referred to his previous visits to 

 America. He first landed on this conti- 

 nent in 1866 in Newfoundland when the 

 work of Mr. Field in connection with 



the trans-Atlantic cable was of special 

 importance; ten years later he came 

 to the Centennial Exposition, where he 

 saw the telephone invented by Mr. 

 Bell; in 1884 he found the electric 

 light of Mr. Edison; in 1897 he saw 

 the electrical industries of Niagara 

 Falls. Lord and Lady Kelvin were 

 very cordially greeted and applauded 

 by the 2,500 people present. In addi- 

 tion to the reception at Columbia 

 University, Lord Kelvin was enter- 

 tained at Cornell University, at the 

 University of Rochester — the main ob- 

 ject of his visit was to attend a meet- 

 ing of the Kodak Company at Roches- 

 ter — and at Yale University, where the 

 degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred 

 on him. In conferring this degree, 

 President Hadley said: "You have 

 joined the different regions of the 

 earth by your investigations of the 

 submarine telegraph; you have joined 

 the different realms of human thought 

 by your contributions to physical 

 theory." * 



THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF 

 SCIENCES. 



The spring meeting of the National 

 Academy of Sciences did not differ in 

 any unusual respect from other annual 

 stated meetings. The Academy has three 

 main objects — it is the official adviser 

 of the government in scientific mat- 

 ters; it holds scientific sessions for the 

 presentation of papers, and it has cer- 

 tain functions in recognizing scientific 

 eminence and in bringing scientific 

 men together. The first of these ob- 

 jects has become relatively unimpor- 



* The portrait of Lord Kelvin given 

 as a frontispiece is from an etching 

 made for Minerva by Professor Hubert 

 Herkomer. 



