Marcu 25, 1897 | NATURE 
491 
material. This in its turn, owimg to the invention of 
telephony, has had to be modified by the introduction of 
quantities which, neglected before, become in rapid 
periodic signalling of primary importance. Thus we 
have the complete theory of the propagation of electri 
waves along wires, with which we have been made 
familiar by the researches of Lord Kelvin himself, 
Heaviside, J. J. Thomson, and Hertz. 
Another important part of Lord Kelvin’s real laboratory 
| used to be his yacht. For many years his commodious 
schooner, the Lad/a Rookh, was put in commission early 
| in April; and from then till the end of October, Lord 
| Kelvin sailed the seas. Sometimes he went as far as 
| Madeira, or up the Mediterranean, but generally he 
| cruised between the Clyde or the Hebrides and the 
| Solent. Wherever he was, he was busy with scientific 
| research, and the mathematical discussion of some ab- 
| struse problem in fluid motion, carried on with note- 
| book and pencil, alternated with a trial of some new 
| form of sounding machine, or an observation of waves 
| or ripples. Lord Kelvin is a thoroughly skilled and 
| scientific navigator ; in fact he is one of the most dis- 
| tinguished authorities, not only on matters of physical 
science, but also on questions of naval architecture and 
| practical navigation. 
In all the work of the Physical Laboratory the aim 
has ever been to render the student self-dependent and 
| resourceful. The writer well remembers being told, not 
long after he entered the laboratory, that he ought to 
have taken to pieces a quadrant electrometer to find out 
what prevented it from acting properly, when all else 
had failed to disclose the fault in the instrument. 
And many others have had similar experience. It is 
very doubtful, indeed, if too much is not done for 
students in many laboratories, in the way of arranging 
for their individual pieces of work, and furnishing them 
—— with ready set-up and unexceptionable instruments. 
De cn imme Ce Re Ancien Soe ie ee But beyond everything in the laboratory at Glasgow 
parr coe: Ivers, | has ever been Lord Kelvin’s presence and example, and 
Fic. 5.—Astronomical Clock in the Hall of Lord Kelvin’s House. 
adopting some other means 
of obtaining the desired 
result. These constant rela- 
tions of practice to theory 
and theory to practice, which 
Lord Kelvin, in consequence 
of his great inventive activity, 
has had always to keep in 
view, have been fraught 
with important consequences 
to science. 
It would be difficult to say 
how many of Lord Kelvin’s 
contributions to the advance- 
ment of pure science have 
resulted from his keen in- 
terest in applications of 
science, and his knowledge 
of the resources and uses 
of mechanism; but it is 
certain that many of them 
may be credited to this 
account. It was the prac- 
tical question of how to 
signal ata rate commercially 
successful through a_sub- 
marine cable that led him to 
the discussion of the diffu- 
sion of electricity through 
a long copper conductor, 
separated from an external 
conductor by a cylindri- oa a: 
cal sheathing of insulating Fic. 6.—A part of James White's Instrument Factory. 
NO. 1430, VOL. 55] 
7 rom ‘Good Words.”] [From a photograph 
