Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ixiii. (1920) No. 5 9 



The influence of temperature upon the magnetic properties of 

 iron, nickel, and cobalt was studied with the help of a specially- 

 designed magnetometer, which is in the possession of jhe Society. 



Wilde was interested in finding the limit of magnetisation as 

 tested by the method of traction, and obtained the value of 2967 

 kilos per square centimetre. 



Wilde's Use of Bode's Law. 

 The German astronomer, J. E. Bode (1747- 1826) directed 

 attention about 1776 to a remarkable empirical rule, now 

 generally known as Bode's Law. The rule states that the relative 

 values of the series of numbers : — 

 o-]-4= 4 



3+4= 7 



6 + 4 = 10 

 i2-j-4 = i6 

 24 -j- 4 = 28 etc. 



are the same as the relative distances of the planets from the sun. 



Henry Wilde contended, in a paper before the Society about 

 forty years ago, that a law of a similar kind should apply to the 

 atomic weights. This early paper was followed at various times 

 by twelve others; in that of 1913 he gave a revised table in- 

 cluding all the more recently discovered elements, for which 

 he found places in his table. 



Tenacity of purpose 'was one o'f the most marked traits in 

 Wilde's character. It is exhibited in an extraordinary degree 

 in his obsession over Bode's Law. He regarded it as a great 

 fundamental law of the universe, and devoted several of his 

 astronomical papers to its advocacy. The last of all his papers, 

 published by the Society when he was eighty-three, relates to the 

 atomic weight of tellurium; in it he maintains that the atomic 

 weight of this element must be exactly 128, as required by his 

 tables. 



Henry Wilde and The Literary of Philosophical Society. 

 Wilde was elected a member in 1859 when twenty-six years of 

 age; and in the following year he gave a short communication 

 relating to the ABC telegraph of Sir Charles Wheatstone. It 

 was not until his retirement from business in 1884 that he became 

 actively associated with the Society. His means had become 

 ample, chiefly owing to the success of his ielectro-chemical patents. 

 When Sir Henry Roscoe and other members of the Society 

 wished to raise a sum of money for the extension and improve- 

 ment of the house, Wilde contributed /joo and in the following 

 year ^400 for this purpose. He then undertook the cost of 

 putting the old portion of the building into sound repair, and 

 added a new portico and a storeroom. All the work was done 

 under his direction, at a cost of ^1,500. In 1893 he wrote a 

 letter to the Council in which he said: "As the Society is so 



