Marcu 25, 1897 | 
IAT ORE 
487 
them or the work they do, but on several memorable 
occasions they have led the way in scientific progress. 
To a resident graduate of the University of Cambridge 
the world owes the Newtonian Philosophy, but it was 
James Gregory, in the University of St. Andrews, who 
first taught the Newtonian doctrines in a University 
course ; and Lord Kelvin was, we believe, the first teacher 
of Natural Philosophy who opened a physical laboratory 
to his students. ‘The beginning was a memorable one. 
Soon after his appointment fifty years ago to the Glasgow 
Chair, Lord Kelvin was beginning his great series ot 
researches on the Electrodynamic Qualities of Matter, 
and invited his students to aid him. Others hearing of 
the new work going on volunteered for service, and new 
branches of research were quickly opened out. Then 
began that famous experimental work which has been 
carried on at Glasgow through half a century, and still 
so actively continues. 
The physical laboratory for many years was a disused 
wine-cellar in the old University buildings. To this was 
added, in course of time, the 
discarded Blackstone exam- 
ination room, and in this 
modest suite of rooms the 
experimental work of the de- 
partment was done, until the 
University removed twenty- 
six years ago to its palatial 
buildings at Gilmorehill. 
For the most part the work 
done in this laboratory was 
of the nature of research. 
A good man was set to make 
some of the easier observ- 
ations in an_ investigation 
which was in progress, and, 
beginning thus, he in a short 
time obtained very consider- 
able skill in experimental 
processes by carrying out 
the determinations of the 
various physical constants 
which were required for the 
final result. For the best 
men this plan answered 
remarkably well. Their in- 
terest was excited, was kept 
alive by their constant inter- 
course with the guiding spirit 
of the place, and their zeal 
was such that, as the writer 
can testify, the laboratory 
corps, as it used to be called, 
has been known to divide 
itself into two squads—one 
which worked during the day, the other during the night, 
for weeks together, so that the work never paused. 
The University of Glasgow is built somewhat after the 
fashion of colleges in Oxford and Cambridge, in the form 
of a double quadrangle, and in a style of Gothic archi- 
tecture, with crow-step gables and turrets, rather common 
in baronial residences in Scotland. 
Although the amount of space devoted to the Depart- 
ment of Natural Philosophy in the University is con- 
siderable, the physical laboratory, it must be confessed, 
suffers from the general plan adopted for the buildings. 
Of the convenience of the quadrangular arrangement for 
a college, consisting in the main of suites of rooms for 
students and fellows, with dining-rooms, class-rooms, 
&c., there can be no question ; but for a wmiversity, in 
which provision must be made for great experimental 
departments, such as_ physics, chemistry, physiology, 
zoology, and anatomy, it is far from being well adapted, 
Such departments are best provided for by detached 
NO. 1430, VOL. 55] 
‘Good Words.””| 
Fic. 1. 
buildings, or “ Institute,” as they are called in Germany, 
if possible within the University grounds. 
| The adjoining figure gives a view of a part of the general 
| working laboratory. In the foreground is a writing- 
table, on which stands a magnetostatic voltmeter. At 
| that table Lord Kelvin generally sits when he is in the 
laboratory, and occupies himself with the consideration 
of results which are being obtained by the men at work 
in the laboratory, or with the dictation of his correspond- 
ence to his secretary. 
A little to the right is a stone erection built on an in- 
dependent foundation. This contains a chamber in which 
apparatus requiring a steady support can be suspended ; 
and it was here that the pendulum was hung by which 
| Messrs. George and Horace Darwin made their first 
| attempt to determine directly the attraction of the moon 
on a body at the earth’s surface. 
Behind the writing-table is another table with vertical 
beams at its corners, which give it somewhat of the 
appearance of a ‘‘four-poster” bedstead. To these 
[from a photograph by T. and R. Annan and Sons, Glasgow. 
View of part ot the General Laboratory. 
| vertical beams cross-bars are attached for the support of 
pieces of apparatus in the manner shown in the illus- 
| tration. 
| Inthe background are two stone pillars supporting a 
partition wall of the rooms above, and to these were led 
| wires from a large battery of tray Daniell cells which, 
| before the advent of really practical dynamos, stood in 
the right-hand corner of the laboratory under the stalr- 
case, and supplied the current required for the various 
kinds of experimental work in progress. On the left of 
the pillars 1s seen part of another four-poster, and the 
door of a private room, partitioned off from the main 
laboratory, in which special experiments, or reductions of 
results can be carried on without interruption. 
Passing up the stairway, seen at the back in the illus- 
tration, we arrive on the upper floor in a small room 
formed under the seats of the Lecture Theatre. Thence 
| we can pass directly into the Lecture Theatre, or into the 
Apparatus Room, which is directly behind it. 
