150 Britain's Heritage of Science 



appreciation of science led him to organize a series of 

 popular penny lectures which attracted large audiences, 

 who had the privilege of listening to such men as Huxley, 

 Huggins, Stanley Jevons, Clifford, and others scarcely less 

 eminent. 



Roscoe's first scientific investigations dealt with the 

 chemical action of light. The subject was suggested by 

 Bunsen, and partly carried out in conjunction with him. 

 Apart from the purely scientific interest attaching to the 

 effect of light in inducing hydrogen and chlorine to com- 

 bine, the research was conducted with the practical object 

 of obtaining a means of measuring the actinic value of day- 

 light under different atmospheric conditions. His principal 

 contribution to pure chemistry consists in his investigation 

 of the element vanadium, which established its true position 

 as a trivalent element of the phosphorus group, and showed 

 that the substance Berzelius had considered to be the metal 

 was really its nitride. 



Among Roscoe's colleagues at Manchester who have 

 helped to establish the reputation of Owens College as an 

 important centre of scientific research, two men stand out 

 prominently: Balfour Stewart (1828-1887) and Osborne 

 Reynolds (1842-1912). It was probably fortunate that a 

 mind of such striking originality as that of Reynolds was 

 never submitted to the discipline of school, though it is 

 difficult to believe that even the severest group-education 

 could have shaped it into a common mould. His father was 

 a clergyman who had passed through the Mathematical 

 Tripos as thirteenth wrangler. The son was brought up at 

 home, and entered the workshop of an engineer at the age 

 of nineteen. He soon found that a knowledge of mathematics 

 was essential to work out the problems that presented them- 

 selves to him, and he decided to go to Cambridge, where he 

 graduated as seventh wrangler in 1867. He then returned 

 to the office of a civil engineer in London, but within a year 

 offered himself as a candidate for the newly-founded Pro- 

 fessorship of Engineering at Owens College. He remained 

 connected with that institution from 1868 to 1905, when 

 he retired owing to failing health. In his methods of 

 instruction Reynolds was a follower of Rankine ; his lectures 



