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SOME SCIENTIFIC CENTRES. 
VI.—THE CavENpDISH LABORATORY. 
INCE its foundation, the Cavendish Laboratory of 
Cambridge has held a very prominent position, 
not only as the home of the teaching of physical 
science in one of our great universities, but also as 
the centre of a vigorous and prolific school of scientific 
research. The history of the laboratory must always 
be intimately associated with the scientific labours of 
the three distinguished holders of the chair of experi- 
mental phyics in the University of Cambridge, J. Clerk 
Maxwell, Lord Rayleigh, and J. J. Thomson, each of 
whom, in his own direction, has exerted an unusually 
marked influence in the advance of physical science. 
The laboratory is of relatively recent foundation in 
comparison with some of our older scientific centres 
like the Royal Institution, but yet it may claim to be 
one of the first of those modern laboratories which 
have now sprung up in almost all the larger universi- 
ties where adequate provision is made for the advance- 
ment of scientific research as well as for the teaching 
of science. In 1870 the Duke of Devonshire, who was 
then chancellor of the university, signified his desire 
to build and equip a physical laboratory for Cam- 
bridge. In his capacity as member of the Royal Com- 
mission of Education, he had recognised the value of 
such an institution. The chair of experimental 
physics was founded as a result of this offer in 1871, 
and in the same year James Clerk Maxwell was 
appointed to the position. It was enacted that it 
should be *‘ the principal duty of the professor to teach 
NATORE 
[ DECEMBER 10, 1903 
accommodation, another wing was built to the labor- 
atory. This includes a large well-lighted laboratory 
devoted to the practical work in physics of the medical 
| students, a small lecture room, several smaller research 
rooms, 
and a basement which can be used as a 
constant temperature room. 
The laboratory, at the time of its foundation, was 
one of the largest and best equipped then in existence. 
The fame of Maxwell immediately attracted round 
him men eager to undertake research under his 
guidance. Among others, it is interesting to recall 
the well-known names of Chrystal, Garnett, W. D. 
Niven, Schuster, and Gordon. One of the first pieces 
of important research undertaken in the laboratory 
was a verification of Ohm’s law by Chrystal. The 
experiments of previous observers and Weber’s 
theories had thrown doubt on its validity, but Chrystal 
showed that the law held with great accuracy over a 
wide range, and he was able also to explain the 
apparent discrepancies observed by others. Maxwell 
himself during his tenure of the professorship was 
mainly occupied in superintending the work of others, 
in preparing for the press his celebrated treatise 
on electricity and magnetism, his treatise on heat, and 
in the editing of the Cavendish papers. The ‘‘ small 
book on a great subject ’’ entitled ‘‘ Matter and 
Motion ’’ was also published during the same period. 
The greater portion of his energies during the closing 
_ years of his life was devoted to the editing of the 
| 
and illustrate the laws of Heat, Electricity, and Mag- | 
netism; to apply himself to the advancement of the 
knowledge of such subjects; and to promote their 
study in the University.” 
For several years after his appointment Maxwell 
was occupied in designing and attending to the con- 
struction of the laboratory, and equipping it with suit- 
able apparatus. 
until 1874, when the chancellor of the university 
formally presented his gift to the university. 
The laboratory is an unpretentious solid three story 
building of stone. At the present time the ground 
floor is taken up partly by a series of rooms devoted 
to research and by a large and admirably equipped 
workshop and a small battery room. One of these 
rooms was for many years used by Dr. Glazebrook, 
secretary of the British Association Committee of 
Electrical Standards, as a standardising laboratory, 
and here were kept the electrical standards of the 
Association. On the walls, as one ascends the stone 
stairway, hang a painting of the founder, a picturesque 
print of Cavendish, that eccentric man of science who 
did such admirable electrical worlk more than a century 
ago, a small painting of Maxwell, and fine enlarged 
photographs of Lord Rayleigh, Sir George Stokes, and 
Lord Kelvin. The first floor is occupied by a large 
laboratory for practical work, a lecture and prepar- 
ation room, and a neatly arranged apparatus room. 
Here are kept some scientific apparatus of unusual 
historic interest, including the original British 
Association revolving coil, with which the first deter- 
mination of the value of the ohm was made, the re- 
volving coil used by Lord Rayleigh for the same pur- 
pose, and the oscillation apparatus used by Maxwell in 
his determination of the viscosity of gases. Among 
many other pieces of apparatus devised by Maxwell 
may be mentioned his model for illustrating the induc- 
tion of electric currents, and spinning tops and plaster 
casts made by his own hands to illustrate Willard | 
Gibbs’s heat surfaces. The second floor consists of a 
laboratory devoted to advanced practical work and four 
research rooms. In 1896, on account of lack of 
No. 1780. vol. 69] 
The building was not ready for work | 
electrical researches of the Hon. Henry Cavendish, 
F.R.S., great uncle of the Duke of Devonshire, the 
founder of the laboratory. Cavendish, at his death, 
had left behind a mass of unpublished manuscript con- 
taining an account of his electrical researches. An 
examination of these papers showed that Cavendish 
was far in advance of his time in knowledge of elec- 
tricity, and had made many important discoveries. 
Although Maxwell did not find time to do very much 
experimental research in the Cavendish, his influence 
in directing the work of others and in infusing fresh 
life into the mathematical studies at Cambridge can- 
not be overestimated. In the ‘‘ Life of Maxwell,”’ 
Lord Kelvin, writing in 1882, gives the following 
important testimony :—‘* The influences of Maxwell at 
Cambridge had undoubtedly a great effect in direct- 
ing mathematical studies into more fruitful channels 
than those in which they had been running for many 
years. His published scientific papers and books, his 
action as examiner at Cambridge, and his professorial 
lectures, all contributed to this effect; but, above all, 
his work in planning and carrying out the arrange- 
ments of the Cavendish Laboratory. There is, indeed, 
nothing short of a revival of physical science at Cam- 
bridge within the last fifteen years, and this is largely 
due to Maxwell’s influence.”’ 
Maxwell’s reputation, although great during his 
lifetime, has continued to grow steadily since his death. 
His worl: on the kinetic theory of gases, on dynamical 
subjects, and on the theory of colours was sufficient 
to place him in the very first rank of scientific investi- 
gators, but it is on his great work in electromagnetic 
theory that his fame will ultimately mainly rest. 
Maxwell’s views of the electromagnetic field and his 
electromagnetic. theory of light were generally 
accepted among English physicists, but on the Conti- 
nent, where rival theories held the field, were practic- 
ally unknown except to a few. The brilliant experi- 
ments of Hertz and others on the production and 
properties of electrical waves verified in a most con- 
clusive manner Maxwell’s theory that light was an 
electrical disturbance in the luminiferous ether. This 
gave a great impetus to the study of Maxwell’s theory 
of the electromagnetic field, and it is safe to say that 
practically all the mathematical theory of the last 
