43 
THE 
CANTOR LECTURE, 1890-WILLIAM STURGEON. 
COMMUNICATED BY 
f 
MAJOR R. H. MURDOCH, R.A. 
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'S'- \C)^y4 
In No. 6, Yol. XIII. (1884) will be found a Memoir of William 
Sturgeon, ex-gunner and driver of the Royal Artillery, inventor of 
the electro-magnet, lecturer in science and philosophy, at the (late 
H.E.I. Company’s) Military College, Addiscombe, 1 and Director of 
the Royal Victoria Gallery of Practical Science, Manchester. The data 
then available were, however, only sufficient to furnish an outline of the 
career and discoveries of this distinguished Artillery scientist; but the 
name and fame of William Sturgeon have recently been prominently 
brought before the scientific world through the medium of the Cantor 
lecture, 1890, on the “ Electro-Magnet,” delivered before the Society 
of Arts by Dr. Silvanus Thompson, P.R.S., and the brief regimental 
memoir (above-mentioned) can now be amplified in the larger light 
thrown on Sturgeon’s labours by the Cantor lecture, for which purpose 
the editor of the English Mechanic and World of Science has kindly lent 
the writer, for the present purpose, the blocks made use of by that 
journal to illustrate the models employed by Dr. Silvanus Thompson, 
extract from whose lecture is given below :— 
The Lecture. 
Amongst the great inventions which have originated in the lecture- 
room of the Society of Arts are two of special interest to electricians— 
(1) The application of gutta-percha for the purpose of submarine 
telegraph cables. 
(2) The electro-magnet. 
This latter invention was first publicly described from the very plat¬ 
form on which I stand, on May 23rd, 1825, by William Sturgeon, 
whose paper is to be found in the forty-third volume of the “ Transactions 
of the Society of Arts.” For this invention we may rightfully claim the 
very highest place. 
1 The Royal Military College at Addiscombe, near Croydon, was for over 40 years the Military 
College of the Hon. East India Company, where were trained all the Artillery and Engineers and 
a large proportion of the Cavalry and Infantry Officers who helped to found and consolidate our 
great Empire in the East. The college was done away with some 30 years since, as the necessary 
result of the amalgamation of the Queen’s and the local Indian forces. 
“ Peregrine Poulteney ” (authorship of which is credited to Sir John Kaye), and “ In the Com¬ 
pany’s Service,” describe Addiscombe life in terms that would much surprise the modern cadet. 
Addiscombe survivors will be glad to know that old “Mother Rose’ ’ is living. Having lost the pension 
purchased for her by the cadets, she is now an inmate of St. Mary’s Hospital (Almshouses), 
Wallington, Croydon. (September 1891). 
2. VOL. XIX. 7 
Y 
