Grand Old Man of Science

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 195, 22 August 1904, Page 4

Grand Old Man of Science

Often you may sec a carriage driving slowly through London streets, in which is soaK-d Loid Kelvin, sometiu.'-'s aJert to notice anything peculiar in the passing traffic, at other times with bis eyes closed and with the calm of quietdde on his striking face. His lameness, which was the result of an accident wh'.>n enjoying the Scottish recreation of ' curling, has led him to drive, or one is quite sure so energetic a man, even at eighty, wouldi be striding along with the independent swing of John Stuart Blackie. He seems to like tho stirring life of London, for it probably sets hi motion more waves of mental energy than when he is staying at his home in Ayrshire ; and yet probably few Londonera recognize his personality as he passes through the City. Scientists do not expect popular fame, but Lord Kelvin has added so much to our 'knowledge, and has achieved so muoh in life-saving inventions, that he deserves to be honored' (says the ' Daily Chronicle ') by the " man in the street " as well as'by his fellowlaborers in science and physics l , who can qstimate his remarkable work. Yet lie said not longi-ago that despite fifty years of experimental investigation he could not help feeling that he really knew no 'more than he knew fifty years ago. Some interesting tales are told of Lord Kelvin's discoveries, and how tho ideas of them have come to his quick mind. For insitance, this Is said to have been the way in which ho found the mirror galvanometer. He was puzzling over the difficulty of perfecting tho ordinary telegraphic apparatus used on overhead wires, which was not suited for the varying current passing along cables. The lagging of the electric currents had the eifoct of making them run together into one bottom current, with surface ripples, which corresmessage. The problem was how to pond to the separate signals of the invent a means of interpreting clearly and easily all the delicate fluctuations. One duy Lord Kelvin's eyeglass fell off and swung in front of the magnet, reflecting its movements and instantly the idea of the mirror suggested itself. So a monocle has had a direct effect on science !

Thirty years ago an article appeared in Good Words from his pen o n tho subject of the mariner's compass. The second article did not follow, for in -the interval Lord Kelvin had invented &• far superior mariner's compass. This is one of m ; ,ny cases where directly he has begun to investigate he has been led to improve.

When wireless telegraphy was still treated as a questionable discovery. Lord Kelvin sent tt message from tho Isle of Wight to Bournemouth to his old friend tho late Sir George Stokes, for transmission from Bournemouth to Cambridge. It was in the following terms :—"Stokes, Lensfield Cottage, Cambridge. This is sent commercially paid at Alum Bay for transmission through ether (Is; to Bournemouth, and thence by I postal telegraph (15d) to Cambridge. '— Kelvin." Few things have interested the veteran teacher so much as tho developments of wireless telegraphy since that experimental message of-aix years ..