CAEE OF THE HEATING APPAEATUS 161 



acts ; x and instead of answering them, ' contented himself/ 

 as he put it, ' with forwarding an official memorandum to the 

 First Lord of the Treasury.' This memorandum was doubly- 

 disingenuous ; it complained of Hooker having ' launched 

 out into various topics,' whereas Ayrton had invited him to 

 specify these topics of complaint ; and it slurred over three 

 of Hooker's chief instances, while asserting that Hooker had 

 originally been appointed to supervise the works at Kew 

 (instead of the heating works only). 



I do not [Hooker wrote] for a moment question the First 

 Commissioner's power to exercise arbitrary authority over 

 the Director of Kew, but I do submit that there has been 

 hitherto no plea whatever for such action as regards myself, 

 and that the repetition of such acts, and the leaving me to 

 be informed of them, on each occasion, by my subordinate, 

 constitute a grievous injury to my official position, and tend 

 to the subversion of all discipline in this department. 



And he respectfully claimed the privilege of appealing for 

 redress to the First Lord of the Treasury, Mr. Gladstone. 



The whole incident leading to this extreme measure justi- 

 fied the prophecy of The Times that it would prove ' another 

 instance of Mr. Ayrton's unfortunate tendency to carry out 

 what he thinks right in as unpleasant a manner as possible.' 

 Had he only condescended to explain his purpose, there could 

 have been little difficulty in effecting what in many respects 

 was a desirable change. The heating apparatus had, as a 

 whole, been very successful ; but an accident to one of the 

 pipes revealed some imperfect execution of details, and it was 

 difficult to decide who was responsible for the technical correct- 

 ness of such works. Hence the expediency of appointing a 

 specially qualified Director of Works, (Sir) Douglas S. Galton, 

 who should carry out all works sanctioned by the Department, 

 not only at Kew, but elsewhere, the requisition in each case 

 being made by the official, such as Hooker, in local authority. 



But no explanation was vouchsafed, before or after. The 



1 ' I have launched a rostrate ironclad against Ayrton,' remarked Hooker 

 when he sent the particulars. 



