CHAPTER V 



PROFESSORSHIP OF CHEMISTRY AT OWENS COLLEGE 



Return to London Appointment at Owens College Early History of 

 Owens My Assistants Growth of the College Training in 

 Scientific Method New Building Japanese Students British 

 Association, J 6i Joule. 



HAVING acted to my advantage as assistant to Pro- 

 fessor Williamson at University College in the winter 

 session of 1855-6, and having completed as far as 

 was then possible my research work in Heidelberg, I 

 returned to London in the autumn of 1856, for the pur- 

 pose of beginning life on my own account. The funds 

 at my disposal were of small amount, but I had kind 

 friends who gave me a helping hand to fit up a private 

 laboratory, where, with the help of my friend Dittmar, 

 who came over from Germany to assist me to carry on 

 research work, I hoped to make a beginning as a con- 

 sulting chemist. My mother and I set up housekeep- 

 ing in London, and I began my experience as an 

 independent teacher by lecturing to an army school at 

 Eltham, and as a consultant, by an investigation on 

 ventilation for a departmental committee of which Dr. 

 Lyon Play fair was a member and the late Mr. J. F. 

 Campbell, of Islay, was secretary. For this committee 

 I examined the air of the soldiers' sleeping-rooms in 

 Wellington Barracks when the men were in bed. I 

 also visited many schoolrooms, as well as artisans' 

 dwelling-houses, and determined the amount of carbonic 



