v PROFESSOR AT OWENS COLLEGE 109 



no such course in the college, I had perforce, at first, 

 to give a good deal of elementary physics in my own 

 lectures. So I brought before my colleagues, and 

 through the new Principal, Greenwood, before the 

 trustees, the necessity for the appointment of a Pro- 

 fessor of Physics. Professor Sandeman was the purest 

 of pure mathematicians, and had not the slightest idea 

 of experimentation, though he was by title Professor 

 of Natural Philosophy. He wrote a book called 

 PclieotcticSi which I believe consisted of an attempt to 

 prove why two and two made four and not five ! This 

 was the subject upon which he delighted to lecture to 

 the untutored youth who then attended the college. 

 After a time R. B. Clifton, then a distinguished young 

 Cambridge man, was appointed as Professor of 

 Physics, and this was the first step towards the 

 expansion of the college in a scientific direction. 

 Clifton soon became most popular, his lectures were 

 admirable, and enabled me to dispense with teaching 

 any portion of his subject. Too soon Owens had to 

 part with him to Oxford, a University which he still 

 adorns. On Clifton's departure, his place was filled 

 by my lifelong friend William Jack, and on his re- 

 signation by Balfour Stewart, a man of original mind 

 and of high position in the world of science. 



The gradual increase of the number of students, and 

 the general recognition by the public of the work done 

 by the Owens College, led to the determination among 

 us to place the institution on a more satisfactory 

 footing both as regards building and endowment. 

 For this purpose we formed a Committee, consisting 

 of Manchester men of position, whom we had inter- 

 ested in the rebuilding of the Owens College, on a 

 prominent site in the city, and they had so far 

 completed their work that the foundation stone of the 



