1 86 



NA rURE 



[June 20, 1901 



THE NINTH JUBILEE OF GLASGOW 

 UNIVERSITY. 



THE ninth jubilee of the University of Glasgow was 

 celebrated last week with brilliant ceremony. The 

 proceedings opened on Wednesday with a commemora- 

 tion service in Glasgow Cathedral, when a sermon was 

 preached by Dr. M'Adam Muir. In the afternoon Prin- 

 cipal Story, the Vice-Chancellor, on taking the chair, read 

 the following telegram from the King ; — " I remember 

 with what great pleasure I laid the foundation stone of 

 your new buildings in 1866, and I heartily congratulate 

 the University on the celebration of the 450th year of its 

 existence." He then addressed a welcome to the dele- 

 gates, who subsec|uently presented addresses from uni- 

 versities, colleges and other learned and public bodies 

 on the Continent, in the United States of America, 

 the British colonies and dependencies, and the United 

 Kingdom. 



The foreign institutions represented, in alphabetical 

 order of countries, were as follows : — 



Austria- Hungary : Universities of Cracow, Klausenburg, 

 •Lemberg, Prague and Vienna. Belgium: Free University of 

 Brussels, Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Art, University 

 of Liege, and Catholic University of Louvain. Finland: Uni- 

 versity of Helsingfors. France: Universities of Caen, Lille, 

 Lyons, Aix- Marseilles, Montpellier, Paris and Rennes, Academy 

 of Medicine, Institute of France, and Franco-Scottish Society. 

 Germany: Universities of Breslau, Gottingen, Heidelberg, Kiel 

 and Leipzig, and Royal Society of Sciences, Gottingen. Holland: 

 Royal Academy of Sciences, and University of Utrecht. Italy : 

 Universities of Bologna, Padua, Rome and Turin, Royal .A.ca- 

 demy of .Sciences, Bologna, Royal Society of N.aples, Italian 

 Society of Science, Royal Academy of Sciences, Turin, and 

 Royal Institute of Science, Letters and Art, Venice. Japan: 

 University of Tokio. Nonvay : University of Christiania. 

 Portugal: University of Coimbra. Russia: Universities of 

 Kieffand Moscow, Imperial Society of Naturalists, and Imperial 

 Military Academy of Medicine. Spain : University of Zara- 

 goza. Sweden: Universities of Lund and Upsala. Switzer- 

 land: Universities of Bern, Geneva, Lausanne and Neuchatel. 

 United States of America : University of Michigan, Johns 

 Hopkins University, University of California, University of 

 Boston, .American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Massachusetts 

 Historical Society, University of Chicago, University of Mis- 

 souri, North- Western University, Dartmouth College, Cornell 

 University, University of Wisconsin, Vale University, American 

 ■Oriental Society, Columbia University, New Vork, Union Theo- 

 logical Seminary, New Vork, Leland Stanford Junior University, 

 University of Pennsylvania, American Philosopical Society, 

 Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, 

 ■Cooper Medical College, Columbian University, National 

 Academy of Sciences, Smithsonian Institution, Clark University, 

 American Philological Association, Archjeological Institute of 

 America, and Smith College. 



The institutions in British Colonies and Dependencies 

 represented at the celebration were ; — 



Australia : Universities of Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. 

 Canada: Dalhousie University, Queen's College, Kingston, 

 M'Gill University, and the University of Toronto. India : 

 Universities of Allahabad, Bombay, Calcutta, Lahore (Punjab 

 University) and Madras, and Asiatic Society of Bengal. New 

 Zealand: University College, Auckland. 



On the morning of Thursday there was a crowded 

 attendance in the Bute Hall of the University to hear an 

 oration on James Watt by Lord Kelvin, and another by 

 Prof Smart on Adam Smith, and to see the graduation 

 ceremony at the conclusion of the addresses. 



Lord Kelvin described Watt's career and achievements 

 •in an address of which the following is an abstract : — 



The name of James Watt was famous throughout the whole 

 •world, in every part of which his great work had conferred 



NO. 1 65 I, VOL. 64] 



benefits on mankind in continually increasing volume up to the 

 present day. It was fitting that the University of Glasgow, in 

 this celebration of its ninth jubilee, should recollect with pride 

 the privilege it happily exercised 145 years ago of lending a 

 helping hand and giving a workshop within its walls to a young 

 man of no University education, struggling to begin earning a 

 livelihood as a mathematical instrument maker, in whom was 

 then discovered something of the genius destined for such great 

 things in the future. In a note by Watt appended to Prof 

 Robison's dissertation on steam engines, he said that his atten- 

 tion was first directed in the year 1759 to the subject of steam 

 engines by the late Dr. Robison, then a student in the University 

 of Glasgow and nearly of his own age. He at that time threw 

 out an idea of applying the power of the steam engine to the 

 moving of wheel carriages and to other purposes, but the scheme 

 was not matured, and was soon abandoned. On his going 

 abroad about the year 1761 or 1762, Watt tried some experiments 

 on the force of steam in a Papin's digester, and formed a species 

 of steam engine by fixing upon it a syringe one-third of an inch 

 diameter with a solid piston, and furnished also with a cock to 

 admit the steam from the digester or shut it oft" at pleasure, as 

 well as to open a communication from the inside of the syringe to 

 the open air, by which the steam contained in the syringe might 

 escape. That single acting, high-pressure syringe engine, made 

 and experimented on by James Watt 140 years ago in his Glasgow 

 College workshop, now in 1901, with the addition of a surface 

 condenser cooled by air to receive the waste steam and a pump 

 to return the water thence to the boiler, constituted the common 

 road motor, which, in the opinion of many good judges, was the 

 most successful of all the different forms tried within the last 

 few years. Watt left Glasgow in 1774 to live in the neighbour- 

 hood of Dr. Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles Darwin. 

 But Greenock and the University and City of Glasgow never 

 lost James Watt. The University conferred the honorary degree 

 of LL.D. upon him in 1S06. In 1S08 he founded the Watt 

 Prize in Glasgow College. He became Fellow of the Royal 

 Society of Edinburgh in 1784, Fellow of the Royal Society of 

 London in 17S5, correspondent of the French Academy of 

 Sciences in iSoS, one of the eight " Associes Etrangers " of the 

 French Academy of Sciences in 1 814. Lord Kelvin did not know 

 if any University in the world ever had a tradesman's workshop 

 and saleshop within its walls, even for the making and selling of 

 mathematical instruments, prior to 1757. But whether the 

 University of Glasgow was or was not unique in its beneficent 

 infraction of usage in this respect, it was certainly unique in 

 being the first British University — perhaps the first University 

 in the world — to have an engineering school and professorship 

 of engineering. This began under Prof. Lewis Gordon about 

 1S43. Gkasgow was certainly the first University to have a 

 chemical teaching laboratory for students started by its first 

 professor of chemistry, Thomas Thomson, some time between 

 iSlSand 1830. Glasgow was also certainly the first University 

 to have a physical laboratory for the exercise and instruction of 

 students' experimental work, which grew up with very imper- 

 fect appliances between 1846 and 1S56. Pioneer though it was 

 in those three departments, it had been outstripped within the 

 last ten or fifteen years by other Universities and colleges in the 

 elaborate buildings and instruments now needed to work effect- 

 ively for the increase of knowledge by experimental research 

 and the practical instruction of students. But there was no 

 lagging to-day in the resolution to improve to the utmost in all 

 affairs of practical importance, and they almost saw attainment 

 of the further aspirations to excel over all others in the mag- 

 nificent James Watt Engineering Laboratory of the University 

 of Glasgow to be ready for work before the expected rneeting of 

 the Engineering Congress next September. Now, through the 

 magnificently generous kindness of Mr. Andrew Carnegie to the 

 people among whom he has made for himself a summer home 

 in the land of his birth, all the four Scottish Universities could 

 look forward to a largely increased power of benefiting the 

 world by scientific research and by extending their teaching to 

 young people chosen from every class of society as likely to be 

 made better and happier and more useful to our country by 

 University education. 



The honorary degrees were afterwards conferred. The 

 list was by far the longest that has ever been submitted 

 at any graduation ceremony at the University. It in- 

 cluded 22 Doctors of Divinity and no fewer than 120 



