75^ 



NATURE 



[August 12, 192c 



The partnership with Ayrton was continued 

 several years after their return to England in 

 1879, They were in the van of electrical progress, 

 in some respects before their time — as in the case 

 of Telpherage, which they developed in associa- 

 tion with Fleeming Jenkin. Those were wonderful 

 days : we were just learning to know and use 

 electricity. A little later. Perry's house was often 

 the scene of most stimulating debates, especially 

 when Larmor and Lodge forgathered there with 

 Fitzgerald, whom Perry adored. 



Perry's best work was done at the Fins- 

 bury Technical College. Ayrton and I were called 

 on to lay the foundations of the work of the City 

 and Guilds Institute for the Advancement of Tech- 

 nical Education in October, 1879; we began in 

 temporary quarters in Cowper Street, Finsbury. 

 I found not only that plans were prepared for a 

 separate chemical laboratory but also that steps 

 had already been taken towards the erection of the 

 building. I took exception to the scheme on the 

 ground that more than a mere knowledge of 

 chemistry would be required of the technical 

 chemist of the future : that he must know some- 

 thing of the fundamentals of mathematics, of 

 physics — especially electricity — and of engineering 

 — drawing in particular. My view prevailed and 

 we set to work to excogitate a practical pro- 

 gramme and design a building. In 1871 we roped 

 in Perry to our aid : our trio always fought like 

 thieves over every detail but remained as 'one man 

 throughout. The outcome was the present Fins- 

 bury Technical College and the original Finsbury 

 scheme: I say "original" because our successors 

 were never whole-hearted followers of our con- 

 victions and aspirations. This much I may assert 

 as the last of the Finsbury Mohicans — we were in 

 advance of our time and our fate has been the 

 usual fate of pioneers and prophets. We cut the 

 college adrift from all external examinations. We 

 imposed an entrance examination on applicants. 

 Not only was the course comprehensive but also 

 the methods were special, practical and advisedly 

 educative rather than informative ; our students 

 were young and their period of training was 

 short but at its close, although they did not know 

 a great deal, they had learnt to think for them- 

 selves and to do by themselves, so that they were 

 mentally prepared to continue learning when left 

 to their own devices. Now the college is to experi- 

 ence the fate of our scheme ; it is said that it will 

 be closed next year. When established it was the 

 most original school in the country and it has 

 been a remarkable success. We are a strange 

 people : we seem never to know when we have 

 hold of a good thing and cannot long maintain 

 a consistent policy. In abandoning Finsbury the 

 City and Guilds Institute signs its own death- 

 warrant ; but it has long been practically defunct, 

 the men of imagination and outlook who founded 

 it having bred no successors. 



Perry did not leave Finsbury until 1896, 



when he became professor of mathematics and 



mechanics in the Royal College of Science, South 



Kensington. He had the advantage of being a 



NO. 2650, VOL. 105] 



practical engineer by training ; this, added to his^ 

 mathematical genius and his intimate knowl,edge 

 of electrical science, not forgetting his literary 

 proclivities, made him a man of unusual breadth 

 and sanity of outlook. No special scientific 

 achievement is to be associated with his name; 

 his real interest lay in the work of education and 

 he will go down to fame as an original and con- 

 structive teacher who laid the foundation of a 

 new era. He made mathematical teaching prac- 

 tical and taught many who could never have 

 mastered the abstract subject to use such know- 

 ledge and ability as they had with effect. As 

 examiner in mathematics to the Science and Art 

 Department he exercised a wide and beneficent in- 

 fluence on the teaching of this subject. His 

 methods were not everywhere popular, but this 

 was mainly because of the special demands their 

 practice made on the intelligence of the teacher. 

 As he more than once remarked to me, few really 

 understood him. Still, the written word remains : 

 Perry has left much on record which will be of 

 service to a future, more appreciative generation. 



H. E. A. 



Prof. Perry's love of research and restless spirit 

 of inquiry have inspired the lives of innumerable 

 students who came under his influence. Who can 

 measure what the nation owes to Perry for the 

 intellectual gifts he distributed so freely to so 

 many men? Who can measure the boundaries to 

 which his influence will reach through the lives 

 and activities of his students? The man who 

 inspires is in time forgotten, but those whom he 

 stimulates inspire others, so that his influence in- 

 creases as time goes on. An engineering work 

 like a fine bridge can be seen of all, and the 

 builder is applauded and rewarded. The scientific 

 spirit is apprehended by few, and those who 

 possess it and spend their lives in the true service 

 of the nation by cherishing it and by passing it 

 on to others are unknown and unrewarded by 

 authority, but are held in respect and affection 

 by those who receive from them what so few are 

 able to give. Perry gave lavishly, and his 

 students responded with enthusiastic affection. 

 He ranged wide in the regions of science. In 

 Japan he and his friend and colleague Ayrton ex- 

 perimented furiously. Paper after paper came 

 red-hot from their intellectual forge until even 

 Lord Kelvin said that the pole of scientific re- 

 search had shifted to Japan. 



Finsbury Technical College was founded to do 

 something in technical education which had not 

 been done before. Perry and his colleagues, 

 Ayrton and Armstrong, launched the college. 

 They made it a pioneer in technical education. 

 They made it world-famous. Everything which 

 these men did was new, unorthodox, stimulating, 

 and vastly interesting to the keen young men who 

 flocked from the workshop to the college to hear 

 and often to help them. Perry was unorthodox 

 of the unorthodox. He taught his students to 

 mistrust authority and to try things out for them- 

 selves. 



