PERSONAL. 
Personal. 
PROFESSOR THOMAS RANKEN LYLE, M.A., Sc.D., F.R:S. 
The North of Ireland seems to be a natural nursery for mathematical 
physicists; Lord Kelvin, Sir Joseph Larmor, Sir Joseph J. Thomson, are 
cases in point; so is the subject of the present notice. If his work has. 
bulked less largely in the public eye than that of his distinguished fellow 
countrymen, the circumstance is due to the nature of the work itself and 
the conditions under which it had to be done, rather than the quality or 
amount of it. For Professor Lyle has done a vast amount of work both 
as teacher and investigator, and his work is of the kind that lasts. 
He received his early scientific training at Trinity College, Dublin, 
under the eye of Professor Fitzgerald, one of the most original scientific 
thinkers of his day, and graduated with the highest honours both in 
mathematics and physics. Shortly afterwards, he was appointed, on 
Fitzgerald’s recommendation, by the authorities of the Trinity House, to 
carry out some important work on lighthouse illumination; and in 1889 
was elected to the Chair of Natural Philosophy in the University of 
Melbourne, defeating in the competition such well-known workers as Gee 
and A, Gray. . The first twelve years of his tenure of office were devoted 
to the erection and gradual organization of his department This busi- 
ness left him comparatively little leisure for research, and of that .little 
a very large proportion was given to the helping of other workers; nearly 
every physicist in Australia appealed to him for assistance on the 
mathematical side of their common work, and never appealed in vain. 
But this great task once accomplished, he threw himself with extra- 
ordinary energy into the work of mathematical and_ experimental 
research; even the onset of a serious illness, from the effects of which 
he continued to suffer for more than sixteen years, appeared to act rather 
as a spur than as.a check. In his researches he displayed great powers 
as an inventor and mechanic, as well as an investigator; most of the 
apparatus he used was designed and a good deal of it actually made by 
him; its quality is attested by the fact that the National Physical 
Laboratory had some of it copied for use in the research work of that 
institution. His principal experimental researches dealt with the 
phenomena and laws of magnetization; his theoretical work with the 
computation of the electrical constants of wire coils and with the laws 
governing the behaviour of alternating currents. Incidentally he 
worked out and published the only complete theory of the alternate 
current dynamo yet put forward. This great memoir is a veritable 
marvel, both of mathematical skill and physical acumen; that it has not 
yet found its way into the text-books is a striking example of the inade- 
quate training hitherto given to electrical engineers; they have hardly 
been educated up to its level! 
The stimulating effect of his teaching and research has been marked. 
Professors Himmy, Grant, Barnard, and Hamley, Dr. Rosenhain (of 
the Natural Physical Laboratory), and Dr. Baldwin (Government 
Astronomer for Victoria), all won their spurs as research students in his 
laboratory; many more of his old pupils occupy important posts in the 
universities and high schools of various parts of the Empire. 
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