200 



NA TURE 



January r, 1908 



ties, arising- from the irregular forms of the oceans, 

 that would choke any attempt at direct dynamical 

 calculation in detail. Other examples of the same 

 faculty are afforded by his fundamental improvements 

 in ships' compasses and in deep-sea sounding; while 

 his life-long work on problems relating to the speed 

 of ships, the waves they produce and the energy lost 

 in their formation, has been a chief influence in the 

 rational study of the conditions and limitations of 

 marine propulsion. 



He will be known to future ages, possibly even more 

 widely, as a main pioneer and creator in the all-em- 

 bracing science of energy, the greatest physical 

 generalisation of the last century. He was the first to 

 grasp and insist on the universal dynamical, even cos- 

 mical, importance of the principle of reversible cyclic 

 processes, which sprang almost in advance of its time 

 from the genius of Carnot. Concurrently with Clau- 

 sius he soon supplied the necessary logical adjustment 

 of its thermal application ; and by his own work, and 

 his collaboration with Joule, he largely constructed the 

 practical essentials of the fundamental, because unify- 

 ing, modern science of thermodynamics. The depth 

 and generality of the conceptions, which pervade his 

 fragmentary and often hurried writings on this sub- 

 ject, have been recognised sometimes only after the 

 same ideas have been slowly evolved afresh, and ac- 

 claimed in their varied applications as advances of the 

 first rank, on the part of other investigators. 



In Lord Kelvin there has passed away one of the 

 last commanding figures, perhaps in genius and the 

 variety of his activities as great and memorable as 

 any, in the scientific and intellectual development of 

 the nineteenth century. J. L. 



LORD KELVIN AND THE UNIVERSITY OF 

 GLASGOW. 



A T a college meeting in 189 1, Sir William Thomson 

 -^~*- said : — " I have been a student of the University 

 of Glasgow fifty-five years to-day, and I hope to con- 

 tinue a student of the University as long as I live." 

 In iSgg, when he retired from the professorship which 

 he had held for fifty-three years, Lord Kelvin (as he 

 had then become) applied to the Senatus Academicus 

 to be appointed a research student. His name thus re- 

 mained to the last upon the College roll, and in the 

 list of those who have a right to pursue investigations 

 in the laboratories of natural philosophy. 



An academic connection so long, so intimate, and 

 so fruitful is not severed wi-thout a deep sense of 

 personal bereavement on the part of the survivors. 

 The university, of which, since 1904, Lord Kelvin was 

 the venerated head, was plunged into deep mourning 

 by the news of his death. Special meetings of the 

 court and senate, and of the executive of the general 

 council, were held, and passed minutes of regret and 

 sympathy. The regular classes were suspended ; the 

 courts were silent ; the flag that usually waves high 

 over the Kelvin drooped at half-mast. The new institute 

 of natural philosophy which the Chancellor, at its 

 opening in April last, took such pride in displaying to 

 the Prince and Princess of Wales, was closed ; and 

 throughout the city, which regards the university's 

 glories as its own, the signs of mourning were every- 

 where visible. Telegrams and messages from local 

 public bodies, learned societies, and representative 

 men, arrived hourly at Gilmorehill. The note of ad- 

 miring affection for a great fellow-citizen was pro- 

 minent in these, for Lord Kelvin was a freeman of the 

 city, and a leader in its technical enterprises, no less 

 than a teacher and investigator in the university. 

 Hence came about a certain wistful acquiescence, on 

 the part of Glasgow men, in the arrangement whereby 



NO. IQQ2. VOL. 77] 



he was to be laid to rest beside his intellectual peers 

 in Westminster .'Kbbey. The national tribute was felt 

 to be right and fitting ; though not a few were hoping 

 that his burying-place would be in the City Necro- 

 polis, where his father and others of his kindred are 

 laid. 



In order that expression might be given to thf 

 genius loci, a memorial service was held by the uni- 

 versity in the Bute Hall on Sunday afternoon, Decem- 

 ber 22, simultaneouslv with that held at Largs before 

 the funeral company started on their journey south- 

 ward with Lord Kelvin's body. The hall, which 

 serves as the university chapel, was draped with 

 black, and filled with a congregation of nearly two 

 thousand mourners. All stood, as to the strams of 

 the Dead March the long academic procession, repre- 

 senting the court, senate and other teachers, general 

 council, and students, preceded by the ancient mace 

 swathed in crape, filed in and occupied the stalls and 

 platform. Many of the congregation wore the gradu- 

 ate's robe, and students, men and women alike, wore 

 their undergraduate gowns of scarlet. The Vice- 

 Chancellor, Principal MacAlister, presided, and read 

 the lessons (Job 28, and i Corinthians 15) from his 

 stall. The simple service of prayer and praise was 

 conducted by two professors of the faculty of divinity 

 (Drs. Reid and Cooper), and was marked by devout 

 resignation, and by thanksgiving for a great example, 

 rather than by the gloom of unrelieved mourning. 

 The anthem Nunc Dimittis, sung by the uni- 

 versity voluntary choir, and a special prayer for the 

 university, that in it all science and scholarship might 

 be consecrated to the honour of God and the pro- 

 motion of human welfare, gave the characteristic 

 notes. There was no sermon or funeral discourse ; 

 this will more fittinglv be given hereafter. The vener- 

 able Lord Blvthswood, the Lord Provost, Sir William 

 Bilsland, the president of the faculty of physicians 

 and surgeons, Admiral Bearcroft, Dr. William 

 Wallace, Dr. George Neilson, and many other 

 men of note in the west of Scotland were present. 

 Relatives and others connected with the Chancellor's 

 family, and the officials of the electrical manufactur- 

 ing firm of Kelvin and White, which he founded, 

 occupied seats near the dais. The funeral march 

 of Chopin closed the ceremony, as the university pro- 

 cession passed out of the hall into the darkness of the 

 winter afternoon, and the silence of the courts that 

 the Chancellor had loved so well. 



Telegrams of condolence with the university were 

 received during the week from Mr. Marconi, 

 Glac(5 Bay; the University of London; Univer- 

 sity College, Nottingham ; the Duke of .■\rgyll, 

 representing His Majesty the King; the Faculty 

 of .Science of the Universitv of Rome; Prof. 

 Egoroff, director of the Central Chamber of Weights 

 and Measures, St. Petersburg; Principal Voinarowsky, 

 of the St. Petersburg Electrotechnical Institute; the 

 Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Rector of the Uni- 

 versity; Sir James King, Bt., Dean of Faculties; 

 Rector Borgman, of the Imperial LIniversity of St. 

 Petersburg ; the Russian Physico-chemical Society ; 

 Rector Syniewski and professors of the Polish Techni- 

 cal College, Lvov ; Rector Bagatcy and professors of 

 the University of Charkow ; Rector de Mbinski and 

 Senate of the Universitv of Lemberg; the Royal Col- 

 lege of .Surgeons of Edinburgh; the Senatus of the 

 U.F. Theological College, .Aberdeen; the students of 

 physics of the University of St. Petersburg; President 

 Dini, and the Faculty of Science of the (University of 

 Pisa : the Universitv of Liverpool ; the .Ambassador 

 of France; the .Senatus of the University of Aber- 

 deen ; the St. Petersburg Society of Electrical 

 Engineers ; the pro-rector and professors of the 

 University of Jurjew (Dorpat) ; &c. 



