490 
NATURE 
| MARCH 25, 1897 
gas-engine in a small room on the ground-floor adjoining 
the general physical laboratory. The dynamo is kept 
continually running, and feeds a large secondary battery 
in another small room above the engine-room. This 
battery is used to supply current for special laboratory 
purposes, and also to feed and regulate the incandescent 
lamps throughout the department. 
Perhaps the first telephone line to be established in 
this country was that erected between the University and 
the instrument factory of Mr. James White, who used to 
be well known as Lord Kelvin’s instrument-maker. This 
line existed alone for some time, and formed the nucleus 
from which sprang the Glasgow Telephone Exchange, 
one of the first to be established in Britain. 
Before leaving the laboratory proper we must not omit 
to mention the secular experiments on the effect of long- 
continued pulling stress on the length of wires of 
different materials, which are being carried out under the 
superintendence of Dr. J. T. Bottomley in one of the 
From 
“Good IWords.’”’| 
Fic, 4.—Interior of Study in Lord Kelvin’s House at the University 
lofty rooms of the University tower. There, within a 
case of iron extending from a short distance above the 
floor of one room to the bottom of the one beneath it, a 
distance of about sixty feet, are hung wires of gold, 
platinum, and palladium, two for each metal, one of the 
two in each case being loaded with three-fourths of the 
breaking weight, the other with about one-tenth of the 
breaking weight. The lengths of these wires are observed 
from time to time by Dr. Bottomley by means of 
cathetometer specially constructed for the purpose (sce 
B.A. Rep., 1879, 1886). 
In the same room there used to exist, and probably 
exists still, a mercury pressure-gauge, consisting of a long 
iron tube running for about 100 feet down a well which 
passed from the lofty room in which the wires are sus- 
pended to another below it in the tower. 
In speaking of Lord Kelvin’s laboratory we ought not 
to confine ourselves to the University laboratory, or even 
to Glasgow. Lord Kelvin’s house, for example, is part of 
his laboratory ; ; In fact, in a very true sense his laboratory 
NO. 1430, VORu 55) 
[From a photograph by 7. and RK. 
or workshop includes wherever he happens to be. In 
train and steamer, at home or abroad, he is ever at work ; 
and, no matter where he may be, he 1s in constant com- 
munication by post and telegraph with the corps of 
workers at Glasgow, is in daily receipt of the results of 
their work, and occupied with the deduction of conse- 
quences, and the consideration of how the researches in 
progress may be developed and extended. 
The adjoining figure is a view of Lord Kelvin’s study 
in his house at the University. The writing-table at the 
window is that generally used by Lord Kelvin ; that in 
the middle of the room is the table of his secretary. In 
this room he spends several hours of each day, when he 
is at home, carrying on his literary work with his secre- 
tary, contriving models to illustrate the arrangement of 
the molecules in a crystal, molecular tactics, or mechanism 
for imitating the functions of the luminiferous ether, or 
occupied with one of his numerous inventions. 
The practical applications of physical science which 
Lord Kelvin has made are 
very varied, and they still 
occupy aconsiderable amount 
of his time and attention. 
Just outside his study, in the 
hall of his Glasgow house, 
stands a very ‘remarkable 
clock which is designed to 
run at an almost strictly 
uniform rate (instead of dis- 
continuously, like ordinary 
clocks and watches), and to 
show Greenwich mean time 
to a higher degree of ap- 
proximation than is pos- 
sible with a clock possessing 
any of the ordinary escape- 
ments. <A full account of 
this clock is to be found in 
NATURE for January 11, 1879 
(vol. xv. p. 227). 
The instrument - making 
establishment formerly pre- 
sided over by James White, 
and now carried on by a 
firm which has succeeded 
him, is a large factory situ- 
ated in Cambridge Street, 
Glasgow, and in many re- 
spects may be considered 
branch of Lord Kelvin’s labo- 
ratory. A portion of it is 
A Gee shown on the next page (Fig. 
ata 6). The workshops consist of 
several floors, which are set 
apart for different departments of the work carried on. An 
80-H.P. engine supplies power for the machinery, which 
compre hends many instruments and tools, such as 
lathes, &c., of precision. A large and fully-equipped 
standardising laboratory is provided on the ground- 
floor for the graduation of the standard electrical instru- 
ments which Lord Kelvin has recently placed in the 
hands of practical electricians. 
Here his various navigational and electrical instru- 
ments are made, tested, and sent out for use ; and here, 
when at home, he spends a part of almost every day. 
His usual programme is, after giving instructions regard- 
ing the correspondence of the morning to his secretary, 
and lecturing to his class from 9 to 10 o’clock, if it is one 
of his days todo so, to walk or drive into town to White’s, 
there often to remain until time to return to the Uni- 
versity for a midday lecture or for luncheon. In these 
visits to White’s many scientific problems have been 
solved, and many others have been suggested, the solu- 
tion of which, if unattainable, had to be avoided by 
Annan and Sons, Glasgow. 
