Sir Ernest Rutherford 235 



" Heaven forbid," he says, " that lightning should strike 

 the cable. Any electrical disturbance in the district will 

 be sufficient for our purpose.' ' 



After nine years in Canada Professor Rutherford came 

 back to England, to a new post at Manchester University. 

 He was already a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1908 

 was awarded the valuable Nobel Prize for his researches 

 into the disintegration of elements and into radio-active 

 substances. Then he came to Cambridge as head of the 

 Cavendish Laboratory, which is to-day the very heart and 

 centre of Physical Research. 



The Cambridge Science Laboratories are built on land 

 which the University purchased in 1762 for a Botanical 

 Garden. In 1870 the Duke of Devonshire offered the 

 University six thousand three hundred pounds for build- 

 ing a laboratory, and the work was begun at once. In 

 those days, little more than half a century ago, Science 

 was so little thought of that at first there were only 

 twenty students. Even in 1885 there were only ninety 

 students, and the ignorance of some of these early students 

 was so astounding that we are tempted to end this chapter 

 with a few examples of it. 



At the first M.B. examination two papers were given 

 on elementary physics. Being asked the use of a thermo- 

 meter, one student wrote that it was " an instrument for 

 deciding the specific gravity of water." Another was 

 shown a compass needle mounted on a graduated circle 

 and asked its use. He at once declared that it was 

 used for detecting the latitude and longitude of any 

 place. 



" What ! " exclaimed the scandalized examiner. " Can 

 you detect the latitude and longitude of any place by the 

 use of this compass? " 



" No, sir," replied the ingenious youth, " but you 

 can." 



A third student was given a spirit-level and asked to 



