CAVENDISH LABORATORY 191 



a staff of carefully selected native repetiteurs. Towards 

 the expenses of this work the University contributes 

 about ;£'2,8oo a year. A professorship of Anglo-Saxon 

 was founded in 1878. 



In 1871 the chair of experimental physics was 

 founded, a chair held in succession by Clerk Maxwell, 

 Lord Rayleigh, and J. J. Thomson; and in 1874 the 

 famous Cavendish laboratory, the munificent gift of its 

 late chancellor to the University, was opened. The 

 laboratory was designed by Maxwell ; and the chan- 

 cellor himself, soon after its completion, provided all 

 the instruments which were immediately required. 

 In 1894 the area of the laboratory was increased, the 

 cost being defrayed, in part, by a sum of ;£'2,ooo saved 

 by Professor Thomson out of fees received from 

 students ; but the constant pressure on the available 

 space by research students coming from all quarters 

 of the globe rendered further extension urgently neces- 

 sary, an extension which Lord Rayleigh's generous 

 gift of the Nobel Prize has now enabled the University 

 to undertake. Astronomy has a traditional home 

 in Cambridge; and the observatory, which in 1706 

 found a strange temporary site over the gateway 

 of Trinity College, began to be built on its present 

 site in 1822. The observatory, which takes its regular 

 share of the work mapped out for the observatories 

 of Europe, has received important additions in the 

 shape of both building and equipment in recent 

 years. 



In 187s the professorship of mechanism and applied 

 science was established; and in 1878 the first engineer- 

 ing workshops were built in the University, and fitted 

 with machine tools and other necessary equipment. 

 In 1894 the new engineering laboratories were opened 

 during the tenure of the professorship by Dr. Ewing, 

 now director of naval education. In 1894, also, the first 

 examination for the Mechanical Sciences Tripos, which 



