136 Master Minds of Modern Science 



of his early days. He went to school at the age of eight, 

 but when only fourteen had to leave in order to help his 

 father, who was head of a prosperous business. He said : 



I used to keep accounts for my father, who traded in lead, 

 clay, cobalt, and other potters' materials. I used every scrap 

 of my time, and was recently looking at an old diary in which 

 I put down every hour that I had wasted. I worked on mathe- 

 matics and physics. I had a longing for knowledge. I used to 

 work thirteen hours a day when I had a holiday from business. 

 I even worked in trains and tramway cars. 



He told a little story of his very early days which shows 

 what sort of boy he was. At the end of the Crimean War 

 a captured Russian gun arrived at Stoke. 



My father placed me by it when they were about to unveil 

 it and told me to stay till he returned. I thought the gun was 

 going to be fired and I stood like the boy on the burning deck. 

 My father went away eating, rejoicing, and speech-making. 

 When he got home late at night my mother said, " Where's the 

 boy? He has not come back." Father replied, " Oh, I forgot 

 all about him." So he ran down and found me still there. 



This was good, considering that Sir Oliver could only 

 have been a very small boy at this time. 



" I do not suppose I was ever cut out for business/' Sir 

 Oliver told his audience. It was hearing Tyndall lecture 

 at the Royal Institution which opened his eyes to this 

 fact and made him realize, with a thrill never since for- 

 gotten, that Science was his mistress. Working at odd 

 times and in the evenings, he prepared himself for the 

 Matriculation Examination of London University, and 

 without any help from anybody passed with flying colours. 

 Not content with this very real triumph, he went on to 

 work single-handed for the Intermediate Examination, 

 and this too he passed, gaining first-class honours in 

 physics. 



