AND MODERN* PHYSICS. 77 



Maxwell explaining tho principle of Wheatstono's 

 bridge, and my own wish at tho. time that I had come 

 to tho laboratory before tho Tripos, instead of after- 

 wards. Lord Rayleigh had, during the examination, 

 set an easy question which I failed to do for want 

 of some slight experimental knowledge, and tho first 

 few words of Maxwell's talk showed mo tho solution. 



I did not attend his lectures regularly they wcro 

 given, I think, at an hour which I was obliged to 

 devote to teaching ; besides, there was his book, the 

 " Electricity and Magnetism," into which I had just 

 dipped before tho Tripos, to work at 



Chrystal and Saunder were then busy at their 

 verification of Ohm's law. They were using a number 

 of the Thomson form of tray Daniell's cells, and 

 Maxwell was anxious for tests of various kinds to 

 bo mado on these cells; these I undertook, and 

 spent some time over various simple measurements 

 on them. Ho then set me to work at somo of tho 

 properties of a stratified dielectric, consisting, if I 

 remember rightly, of sheets of paraffin paper and 

 mica. By this means I became acquainted with 

 various pieces of apparatus. There were no regular 

 classes and no set drill of demonstrations arranged 

 for examination purposes ; these came later. In Max- 

 well's timo thoso who wished to work had tho use of 

 tho laboratory and assistance and help from him, but 

 they were left pretty much to themselves to find out 

 about the apparatus and the best methods of using it. 



Rather later than this Schuster caino and did 

 somo of his spectroscope work. J. E. H. Gordon 

 was busy with tho preliminary observations for his 



