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THURSDAY, MAY 5, 1921. 



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Physics a Profession. 



FIFTY years ago, as Sir J. J. Thomson 

 pointed out in his address at the inaugura- 

 tion of the Institute of Physics on April 27, there 

 could be no profession of physics, .^here were a 

 few laboratories — the oldest at the Royal Institu- 

 tion, founded by Count Rumford ; the home of 

 Young and Faraday. They could be counted almost 

 on the fingers of the two hands. There were labora- 

 tories in Scottish universities. Kelvin was at work 

 at Glasgow, Tait at Edinburgh, Balfour Stewart 

 ^t Manchester, Carey Foster was teaching at Uni- 

 versity College, London, Clifton had built the 

 Clarendon Laboratory at Oxford, Maxwell had 

 only recently resigned his professorship at King's 

 ■College (he went to Cambridge in 1871). The 

 Cavendish Laboratory, was being planned; the 

 seventh Duke of Devonshire had written to the 

 Vice-Chancellor : 



y "I find in the report ... recommending 

 the establishment of a professor and demon- 

 strator of experimental physics that the building 

 and apparatus required for this department are 

 estimated to cost 6300Z.' I am desirous to assist 

 the University in carrying this recommendation 

 into effect and shall accordingly be prepared to 

 find the funds required for the buildmg and 

 apparatus." ■-. 



1 The tender ultimately accepted for the bundi^K^MS t4so4 jS^usive of 

 Sas, water, and heating. *^' v,-...! ^* jr. •.- , 



NO. 2688, VOL. 107] " 



Maxwell, in his inaugural lecture, said : 



"Our principal work in the laboratory must 

 be to acquaint ourselves with all kinds of scien- 

 tific methods, to compare them and estimate their 

 value. It will, I think, be a result worthy of 

 our University, and more likely to be accomplished 

 here than in any private laboratory, if by the free 

 and full discussion of the relative value of 

 different scientific procedures we succeed in form- 

 ing a school of scientific criticism, and in assisting 

 the development of the doctrine of method." 



Physics as a profession by which numbers of 

 men would earn a livelihood and at the same time 

 revolutionise the daily life of the world by bring- 

 ing into it knowledge acquired in the laboratory 

 and the study never entered Maxwell's thoughts. 

 Contrast this, as Sir Joseph Thomson did, with 

 the position at present — a universitv or technical 

 school in almost every great town, each with its 

 well-equipped physical laboratory, its keen pro- 

 fessor and its enthusiastic students ; laboratories 

 in all the larger schools, with a staff of teachers 

 numbering many hundreds. Fifty years ago 

 the army of physicists was small in numbers ; its 

 generals were great men, but they had few of the 

 rank and file to command. To-day our leaders in 

 physical science have under their direction a host 

 of willing privates ready to assist in advancing 

 further the boundaries of knowledge and to adapt 

 the discoveries of those leaders to the require- 

 ments of modern life. So it has come about that 

 an Institute of Physics was needed ; the attendance 

 at the inaugural meeting on April 27 gave evi- 

 dence of the need ; for there is now a profession of 

 physics. 



" Up to the present," to quote from the memor- 

 andum explaming the objects and methods of the 

 institute, " the physicist has hardly been recog- 

 nised as a member of one of the professions. His 

 work will become more and more important in the 

 future both in science and mdustry, and one of the 

 aims of the institute is to accelerate the growth 

 of the recognition of his position and value. The 

 science of chemistry has already secured a belated 

 recognition of its value to the nation, but there 

 has been so far little or no recognition of the 

 equally important claims of physics and the 

 physicist, although the application of physical 

 knowledge and physical methods is no less vital 

 to the country." 



Both Mr. A. J. Balfour and Sir Joseph Thomson 

 placed physics on a higher pedestal than this. 

 Mr. Balfour pointed out that to give a physical 

 explanation of a phenomenon was one of the 

 highest aims of scientific inquiry, and Sir Joseph 

 reminded lis -that at Canibridge not many years 



