54 



NATURE 



May 1 8, 1876 



On the 19th and 24th the Section of Physics will again 

 meet ; Mechanics on the 22nd and 25th ; Chemistry on 

 the 23rd ; Biology on the 26th and 29th ; and Physical 

 Geography, Geology, Mineralogy, and Meteorology on 

 May 30 and June i and 2. 



The following are the arrangements which have been 

 made in the Section of Mechanics : — 22nd May. — Mr. 

 Barnaby, C.B., Director of Naval Construction to the 

 Admiralty, Naval Architecture ; Mr. W. Froude, M.A., 

 F.R.S., Fluid Resistance ; Mr. Thomas Stevenson, Light- 

 houses. 25th May. — Mr. F. J. Bramwell, F.R.S., Prime 

 Movers ; Mr. Hackney, B.Sc, Furnaces ; G^ndral Morin, 

 Directeur du Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, Paris, 

 Ventilation ; Proiessor Zetzsche, Electric Telegraphs. 



A general idea of the arrangernents in other sections 

 will be obtained from the list in last week's Nature, 



P- 34. 



Besides these Sectional Meetings, several soirees have 

 been arranged, the first of which, that of Physics, took 

 place last night. A Geographical soirl;^ will be held on 

 Saturday night. 



Several visits have, moreover, we believe, been arranged, 

 including one to H. M. S. Challenger, which is expected 

 home every day. 



The following are the names of some of the distin- 

 guished foreigners who have come to London in connec- 

 tion with the Loan Collection : — Germany: Dr. R. Schone, 

 Herr Wilhelm Kirchner, Dr. Biedermann, Dr. Neumayer, 

 W. Verners, C. Desaga, Herr Lingke, M. Bonis, Dr. 

 Julius Fettbach, Dr. H. Rohrbeck. — Russia : Baron von 

 M. Wrangell, M. Heard, Dr. Selim Lemstrom, Capt. M. 

 Rkeman, R.A., M. Ovsiannikow, Prof. A. von Oettingen. 

 — Ilafy : II Com. Blaserna, Prof. De Eccher, Cav Meucci. 

 — Austria : Baron von Ettinghausen, Dr. Albert von 

 Ettinghausen, Dr. Leopold Pfaundler. — Holland: Prof. 

 Dr. P. L. Rijke, Dr. J. W. Gunning, Dr. D. de Loos, Prof. 

 Dr. J. Bosscha. — Switzerland : M. Soret, M. Hagenbach, 

 M. Forel, M. Wartmann, Prof. Favre, M. E. Gautier, M. 

 Th. Turrettini, M. E. Sarasin, Prof. E. Hagenbach- 

 Bischoff, M. R. Pictet. — Belgium: A. Renard, Prof. C. 

 de la Vallce Poussin, Prof. G. Dewalque.— 6)J<z/« ; Seilor 

 Juan E. Riailo,. — Orange Free State: His Honour, the 

 President of the Orange Free State. — France : M. Tresca, 

 M. Golaz, M. Breguet, P. Jablochkoff. — Norway : Prof. 

 P. Waage. — Sweden : Dr. Christian Lov4n, 



SECTION— PHYSICS. 



Opening Address by W. Spottiswoode, F.R.S., &^c. 



The opening of this Exhibition may prove an epoch 

 in the science of Great Britain. We find here col- 

 lected, for the first time within the walls of one building, 

 a large number of the most remarkable instruments, 

 gathered from all parts of the civilised world, and from 

 almost every period of scientific research. These instru- 

 ments, it must be remembered, are not merely master- 

 pieces of constructive skill, but are the visible expression 

 of the penetrative thought, the mechanical equivalent of 

 the intellectual processes of the great minds whose out- 

 come they are. 



There have been in former years, both in this country 

 and elsewhere, exhibitions including some of the then 

 newest inventions of the day ; but none have been so 

 exclusively devoted to scientific objects, nor any so exten- 

 sive in their range as this. There exist in most seats of 

 learning museums of instruments accumulated from the 

 laboratories in which the professors have worked ; but 

 these are, by their very nature, confined to local tradi- 

 tions. The present one is, I believe, the first serious, or 

 at all events the first successful, attempt at a cosmo- 

 politan collection. 



To mention only a fewjamong the many foreign insti- 

 tutions which have contributed to this undertaking, we 



are especially indebted to the authorities of the Conser- 

 vatoire des Arts et Metiers of Paris, the Physical Museum 

 of Leyden, the Tayler Foundation of Haarlem, the Royal 

 Museum of Berlin, the Physical Observatory of St. 

 Petersburgh, the Tribune of Florence, and the University 

 of Rome. 



Among those in our own country, we have to thank the 

 Royal Society, the Royal Institution, the Ordnance Survey, 

 the Post Office, the Royal Mint, the Kew Observatory, 

 besides various other institutions and colleges, which have 

 freely contributed their quota. 



To enumerate even the chief of the individual instru- 

 ments of historical interest would be a task beyond the 

 limits both of my powers and of your patience. But I 

 cannot refrain from naming as especially worth notice 

 among the {astronomical treasures, a quadrant of Tycho 

 Brahd, telescopes of Galileo, a telescope of Newton, some 

 lenses by Huygens, one of Sir VV. Herschel's grinding 

 machines for specula, and a telescope made by himself in 

 intervals between his music lessons during his early days 

 at Bath, at a time when, to use her own words, his sister 

 Caroline " was continually obliged to feed him by putting 

 victuals by bits into his mouth." This also is probably 

 the " mirror from which he did not take his hands for 

 sixteen hours together," and with which he may have seen 

 for the first time the Georgium Sidus. To come to later 

 days, we have the original siderostat of Foucault, lent 

 from the Observatory of Paris, a compound speculum by 

 the late Lord Rosse, the photoheliograph from Kew, and 

 from still more recent times a complete transit of Venus 

 equipment, from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. 



Turning to other branches of physics, we have a " com- 

 posed microscope," now nearly three centuries old, con- 

 structed in 1590 by one Zacharias Janssen, a spectacle- 

 maker, possibly a connection, or at all eveuts a worthy 

 predecessor, of M. Janssen, the celebrated astronomical 

 spectroscopist. We have an air-pump, and two " Magde- 

 burg hemispheres," with the original rope traces by which 

 horses were attached in the presence of the Emperor 

 Charles V., in order, if possible, to tear them asunder, 

 when exhausted by the air-pump. We have the air-pump 

 of Boyle, the compressor of Pappin, Regnault's apparatus 

 for determining the specific heat of gases, Dumas's globe 

 for the determination of vapour densities, Fizeau and 

 Foucault's original revolving mirrors and toothed wheels, 

 whereby the velocity of light was first determined inde- 

 pendently of astronomical aid, Daguerre's first photo- 

 graph on glass, and the earliest astronomical photographs 

 ever taken. To these may be added De la Rive's instru- 

 ments for statical electricity ; the actual table and appur- 

 tenances at which Ampere worked ; and some contri- 

 vances as if fresh from the hands of Faraday himself. 



Yet rich as is this part of our collection, and interesting 

 as it might be made in the hands of one versed in the 

 history and anecdote of the past, we must not linger even 

 about these pleasant places. Indeed a museum of only 

 the past, venerable though it might be, would be also grey 

 with the melancholy of departing life. For science should 

 be living, instinct with vigour and organic growth. With- 

 out a continuance into the present, and a promise for the 

 future, it would be like a tree whose branches are broken, 

 whose growth is stopped, and whose sap is dried. And 

 if I may carry the simile a stage further, an exhibition of 

 the present, with no elements of the past, would be like 

 the gathered fruits to be found in the market-place, ready 

 to hand, it is true, but artificially arranged. But when 

 past and present are represented in combination, as has 

 been attempted here, the very newest achievements will 

 be found in their natural places as ripened and ever- 

 ripening fruit in the garden from whence they have 

 sprung. 



In reviewing the series of ancient, or at least now dis- 

 used, instruments, one thing can hardly fail to strike the 

 attention of those who are accustomed to the use of the 



