438 



NATURE 



[June 26. [913 



calculation which alone can lead to long secure trains 

 of prediction and adaptation, he transformed the 

 problems of submarine telegraphy from a blind, im- 

 practicable tangle into an ordered science. That 

 achievement proved to be the crucial step in prepara- 

 tion for the present age of electricity. His dis- 

 interested persistence, through manv subsequent 

 years, in the same self-appointed task of rational 

 measurement of electrical quantities and their rela- 

 tions, with the aid of the colleagues whom his zeal 

 enticed into the service, formed the preparation, in 

 all essentials, for uninterrupted progress, as soon as 

 opportunity came in the world of affairs for the larger 

 industrial electric developments to be pushed on. 

 When these immense engineering advances were in 

 full evolution, he was growing old, but his eager 

 foresight still dominated the practical field. 



Only in one respect did he fall short, in the theo- 

 retical electric advance, when he arrested his fruitful 

 trains of inference on the interconnections of these 

 partially concealed agencies, in order to search strenu- 

 ously during long years for their complete elucidation, 

 in some form such as could be exhibited and probed 

 in a mechanical working model. Through this partial 

 lapse of faith, this logical reluctance to take risks in 

 following up the incomplete clues offered by nature, it 

 fell to the most illustrious of his pupils and disciples, 

 Clerk Maxwell, with greater daring and temporary 

 disregard of difficulties, yet ever stimulated and guided 

 by his master's own most instructive and inspiring 

 though halting efforts, to connect light and heat in 

 close linkage with electricity and magnetism, and so 

 embrace all branches of physical science in one com- 

 pact synthesis. This has been the great fundamental 

 achievement in physical science of our age, probably 

 the greatest since Newton announced and developed 

 the law of gravitation. With the eye of faith, waves 

 precisely the same in kind as those of light, only 

 vastly magnified in size, had thus already been fami- 

 liar to the initiated for twenty years, with fully mental 

 vision of their constitution and behaviour, "flashing 

 across space in electric pulses, when at length, by an 

 accident such as comes only to the worthy, the crown- 

 ing honour of first detecting their actual bodily exist- 

 ence was grasped by Hertz. Then, as is usual in such 

 cases, once a practical start has been gained — the 

 more recent advance in the practice of artificial flight 

 is another example— development was pushed rapidly 

 on in many hands, by theory and experiment working- 

 together, until phenomena that it had taken a quarter 

 of a century for eager expert searchers to detect at 

 all, have now become, in the form of wireless tele- 

 graphic signals, almost a commonplace of everyday 

 life. 



We can recall some of the personal qualities of 

 the great man whom we here commemorate, his 

 splendid unconscious humility, his gentleness, his 

 keen interests and enthusiasm, and readiness to learn 

 from every true worker and to help him onward, his 

 patience in controversy combined with the tenacity 

 that indicates seriousness of purpose. In the words 

 transferred to him by Huxley, a stout opponent in 

 more than one discussion, "Gentler knight there never 

 broke a lance." 



Sir Joseph Larmor, on concluding his address, said 

 it was his privilege to ask Sir Robert Anderson to 

 accept, on behalf of the city of Belfast^ that memorial 

 to one of the great men whom Belfast and the 

 province of Ulster had given to the Empire. 



Sir Robert Anderson said that he esteemed it a 

 very hig-h honour to be asked to occupy the place on 

 that occasion of the Lord Mayor, and to take over 

 from his townsmen the custody of that beautiful 

 memorial. He could assure them for the Corporation 

 xo. 2278., VOL. g I "J 



that the statue would n i eive every care and attention. 

 He had no doubt that future generations would appre- 

 ciate that memorial, not only as a work of art, but 

 also for the influence it would exercise in stimulating 

 students to try to emulate Lord Kelvin. 



The Vice-Chancellor of Queen's University proposed 

 that the best thanks of the subscribers be given to 

 Sir Joseph Larmor for unveiling the memorial, and 

 for his address. Proceeding, he referred in eulogistic 

 terms to Sir Joseph Larmor 's scientific work, and 

 spoke with pleasure of the early association of Sir 

 Joseph Larmor as a student of the Queen's College, 

 Belfast. The proposal was seconded by Sir Otto Jaffe, 

 and carried with acclamation. 



At the close of these proceedings, the statue was 

 unveiled by Sir Joseph Larmor amidst the applause 

 of the assembled company. The ceremony concluded 

 with a vole of thanks to the sculptor. 



inlc Garden Park. Belfast. Photographed by Mr 

 A. R. Hogg, Belfast. 



Description oj the Memorial. 



The Botanic Gardens is one of the public parks of 

 Belfast, and is situated about a mile and a half from 

 the centre of the i ity. The position chosen for the 

 statue adjoins ih<- mo- of the new public museum 

 which is shortly to be built. 



The statue is the work of the well-known sculptor 

 Mr. Albert Bruce-Joy. The figure itself is about 

 10 ft. high, and stands on a granite pedestal of about 

 1 3 ft. in height. As our illustration shows, the late 



