By the same Author. 



LESSONS IN ELECTRICITY 



AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION, 1875-6. 



Crown 8vo. with 58 Woodcuts and Diagrams, price 2. 6d. 



More than fifty years ago the Board of Management of the Eoyal 

 Institution resolved to extend its usefulness, as a centre of scientific in- 

 struction, by giving, during the Christmas and Easter holidays of each 

 year, two courses of Lectures suited to the intelligence of boys and girls. 

 On December 12, 1825, a Committee appointed by the Managers reported 

 ' that they had consulted Mr. Faraday on the subject of engaging him to 

 take a part in the juvenile lectures proposed to be given during the Christ- 

 mas and Easter recesses, and they found his occupations were such that it 

 would be exceedingly inconvenient for him to engage in such lectures.' 



Faraday's holding aloof was, however, but temporary, for at Christmas 

 1827 we find him giving a ' Course of Six Elementary Lectures on Chemistry, 

 adapted to a Juvenile Auditory.' The Easter lectures were soon abandoned, 

 but from the date mentioned to the present time the Christmas lectures 

 have been a marked feature of the Eoyal Institution. 



In Christmas 1875 it fell to the Author's lot to give one of these 

 courses. He had beard doubts expressed as to the value of Science- 

 teaching in schools, and heard objections urged on the score of the expen- 

 siveness of apparatus. Both doubts and objections would, he considered, 

 be most practically met by shewing what could be done, in the way of 

 discipline and instruction, by experimental lessons involving the use of 

 apparatus so simple and inexpensive as to be within everybody's reach. 

 With some amplification, the substance of these Christmas lessons is given 

 in the present volume. 



OPINIONS of the PRESS. 



1 These form, with some amplification, 

 the substance of a Christmas course of 

 lectures given by Prof. TrNDALL to a 

 juvenile audience. They are what such 

 teaching requires to be simple in lan- 

 guage, well-arranged, and progressive, 

 each and every step being either demon- 

 strated or illustrated by experiments that 

 are within the reach of anyone's performing 

 for himself.' LANCBT. 



' It is of wm objected that physical science 

 cannot be taught in schools in consequence 

 of the expense of apparatus. Whilst ad- 

 mitting that there is something in this 

 objection, it certainly loses half its force 

 on the perusal of these lectures. Indeed, 

 almost everything u^cd in the experiments 

 here described may be had for a five-pound 

 note ; and surely no school could object to so 

 small an outlay for a course of lectures on 

 electricity.' POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 



' This is a very attractive little book, 

 especially distinguished by the selection of 

 experiments many of them very novel 

 and interesting which can be performed 

 with cheap and home-made apparatus. A 

 popular history of discoveries in frictional 

 electricity runs through it, serving as a 

 text on which the experiments are the 

 commentary.' ATHEN^SUM. 



' We strongly and cordially recommend 

 this capital little treatise to all boys who 

 possess a scientific turn of mind, and they 

 cannot do better than make for themselves 

 the simple apparatus necessary for the 

 performance of the principal experiments 

 in the book ; and to work through the 

 book during the long winter days of the 

 Christmas holidays.' 



QUAKTEKLY. JOURNAL of SCIENCE. 



London, LONGMANS & CO. 



