CHAPTER II 

 EXPERIMENTAL WORK 



CLEAR indications have already been given that from his early student 

 days Tail's main interest was in physical rather than in pure mathematical 

 science. His first experimental work was done in Belfast under the guidance 

 of Andrews, whom he assisted in the preparation of three papers on Ozone. 

 These appeared in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London between 

 1856 and 1857. Already in 1855 he had visited the Paris Exposition, one of 

 his chief objects being the study of scientific apparatus. This we learn from 

 the following letter written from Cambridge : 



ST PETER'S COLLEGE, 



CAMBRIDGE, Sept. 21/55. 

 My dear Dr Andrews, 



I have just received your note. I am sorry it will be impossible for me 

 to revisit Paris this vacation. Everything has been going on so wretchedly here 

 during my absence, so far as regards printing 1 , that even with a month's hard work 

 from this date, I fear not more than of the work will be ready.... 



I have made attempts to see Ruhmkorff, Soleil, and Tyndall. The former was 

 out of the way, Soleil was in Glasgow, and I believe so was Tyndall. I extracted 

 from the woman in Soleil's shop all the information they could give about the 

 Saccharimeter. I saw the instrument, pr. 260 fr., and bought a description of it 

 and its use by Moigno. 



I found and examined all the electromagnetic apparatus in the Exposition, and 

 it was my decided opinion that an instrument in Ruhmkorff s stall called " Appareil 

 de Faraday" was the very thing for us.... 



I hope you agree with me in the matter of the apparatus for Faraday's experiments. 

 The only objection that I could see to it is that possibly it might not be powerful 

 enough ; but of that you will be a much better judge. 



Not far from Ruhmkorff's there is a collection of clockwork, and along with it 

 a small machine for exhibiting the permanence of the plane of rotation. I have not 

 seen the gyroscope itself this machine seemed to me not only comparatively useless, 

 but even dangerous. 



1 The printing of Tail and Steele's Dynamics oj a Particle. 



