50 PETER GUTHRIE TAIT 



Leyden jars, and blackboard ; but the expression of the face is not 

 altogether suggestive to those who knew him well. 



Of the likenesses reproduced in this volume one of the most striking 

 is that from the photograph taken by the Rev. L. O. Critchley, when he 

 was a student in the laboratory. He had been assisting Tait in some 

 work requiring the camera ; and, without the knowledge of the Professor 

 he set the camera so as to photograph him in the act of writing 

 a note. Tom Lindsay, the mechanical assistant, who is standing at the 

 side ready to receive the note when finished, was in the secret. The 

 portrait is admirable, giving not only a fine picture of the massive head, 

 but also showing the usual condition of the writing table and general 

 environment of what served as Tail's retiring room. 



The establishment in 1903 of the "Tait Prize for Physics" at Peter- 

 house, Cambridge, was associated in an interesting manner with the execution 

 of the portrait already referred to. Following up the proposal of Lord Kelvin 

 and Sir James Dewar, the Master and Fellows of Peterhouse commissioned 

 Sir George Reid to paint a replica of the portrait in the possession of the Royal 

 Society of Edinburgh. The portrait was, however, more than a mere replica, 

 for the painter worked into it reminiscences of his own long and intimate 

 friendship with Professor Tait. Through the generosity of Sir George Reid 

 a large portion of the funds contributed was left in the hands of the 

 Treasurer, Mr J. D. Hamilton Dickson, who suggested that an effort 

 should be made, by an appeal to a few other friends, to increase the fund 

 until it should suffice for the establishment of a prize associated with 

 Tail's name, to be given periodically for the best essay on a subject in 

 Mathemalical or Experimental Physics. In this way the fund for the 

 foundation of the Prize was soon raised to two hundred pounds. 



The idea of establishing a Tait Memorial in connection with the 

 Natural Philosophy Department of the Edinburgh University occurred to 

 many of Tail's pupils and friends. Considerations of general University policy 

 prevented an authorilalive appeal being made at ihe lime. Nevertheless, 

 quile unsolicited, a Tait Memorial Laboratory Fund took shape and began 

 to grow. It has now reached the sum of nearly two thousand pounds. 



On June 10, 1907, Sir John Jackson founded a Tait Memorial Fund, 

 with ihe object of encouraging physical research in the University of 

 Edinburgh on the lines of the work of the late Professor Tait. It is 

 unnecessary here to give the whole Declaration of Trust, which may be 



