STORIES OF LORD KELVIN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 47, 4 June 1910, Page 10

STORIES OF LORD KELVIN.

A BOY PRODIGY WHO BECAME AI PEER. '•He was an angel, and better, and must have wings under his flannel waistcoat." In these somewhat extravagant words Thackeray once referred to tae late Lord Kelvin. But, although extravagant, they convey a good character of that famous scientist. His knowledge and power of research were amazing; but the more famous he grew, the more kind-hearted and gentle he seemed to become. indeed, he was consideration itself.

(i O_nce,"_says Mr. Sylvanus Thompson, in his "Life of .Lord ivelvin," "the late Astronomer Roya.l had written an adverse criticism of one of his scientific works, in which his assistant was Ewing (afterwards Professor at .Cambridge, now Director of Naval Education), at that time a youth of twenty-one. The Astronomer Royal's condemnation rested upon a misapprehension, and Ewing, eager to correct it, wrote to his chief asking leave to publish a reply. 'By all means answer',' telegraphed Lord Kelvin, 'but don't hit too hard. Remember, he is four times as old as you axe.'"

. STUDYING THE COMPASS. I Many readers are doubtless aware oi Lord Kelvin's wonderful discoveries and inventions, and how amongst other things he perfected the mariner's compass and telegraph signalling. The manner in which he came to interest himself in the compass forms a curious story. He was asked in 1871 by his friend, the Rev. Norman Macleod, to contribute an article to, his newly-found-ed magazine, "Good Words." He chose as a topic the mariner's compass. When, however, he came to study the subject he found so many defects in the compass then in use that he determined to re--1 medy them. "It was not until 1874 1 that his first article was sent to Good Words, and it was five years atferwards when his second article appeared. 'When I tried,' he said, 'to write on the mariner's comj pass, I found that I did not know nearly enough about it, so I had to learn my I subject. I have been learning it these five years.'"

A DESERTED LECTURE-ROOM. The story gives an insight into the thorough methods of Lord Kelvin when he tackled any subject. And to the students of Glasgow University he was aptat times to talk above their heads, so profound was his knowledge. "In his mathematical physics lectures, the suggestions that he poured forth were much above the heads of the ordinary graduate—over a hundred in this class—and they gained little by coming to them except a register of their attendance necessary for tiu,«* degrees. For, as sooq as he turned round to write on the blackboard, the students, row by row, began to creep out of the lectureroom, through a back door behind the benches, and steal downstairs, their bodily presence following their mental presence, which had left as soon as the roncall had finished. Prom time to time the professor put up his eye-glass, peered at the growing empty space, and remarked on the curious, gradual diminution of density in the upper part of the lecture-room." Bnt withal he was not above innocent amusement, and many a family .party did he amuse as a conjurer, a couple of his favorite tricks being the making of a frying machine with umbrella whalebones, and persuading an egg to stand alone. A PRECOCIOUS BOY.

As a boy he was very precocious, although his father had been brought up on the land as a fatm laborer. At sixteen Lord Kelvin astounded authorities with his knowledge of physical science. His education was of the old-fashioned, all-round sort—a sort which he enthusiastically recommended at a speech at the annual dinner of the 1 London Glasgow University Club as late as 1907. "A boy," he said, ''should have learned by the age of twelve to write his own language with accuracy and some elegance; he sould have a reading knowledge of French, should toe able to translate Latin and easy Greek authors, and should have some acquaintance with German. Having learned thus the meaning of words, a boy should study logic."

AN ATHLETE AND VOLUNTEER. At Cambridge Lord Kelvin not only gained distinction as a student, but as an oarsman. He was a fine sculler, and won the Colquhoun Silver Sculls, and Mr. Thompson tells a couple of stories about him which show that he did not lack in wit. In 1859 Kelvin bacame an enthusiastic volunteer, but while engaged in his favorite pastime of curling.on ice he fell and broke his left leg, an accident which left him permanently lame. His resignation from the volunteers he used to relate in the following terms:—

"It was this way, you know. I was all right standing at ease and at manual exercises, but when it came to evolutions the more the officer ordered us to march the more I halted. So 1 resigned."

MADE QUEEN VICTORIA LAUGH. It is related, too, how, ".presiding in 1893 at a dinner to the physiologist Virchow, he announced at the close: "Gentlemen, the reduction of cellular tissue to free chemical molecules you may now commence—in other words, you may now smoke." Another anecdote shows Lord Kelvin —or, rather, Sir William Thomson, as he then was—at a moment when he was not intentionally comic, but apparently seemed to be funny to Queen Victoria. It is taken from Principal Story's diary, and relates to a Royal dinner-party at Inveraray.

"Tli* 'Thomsons dined this evening, and in the saloon, soon after the Queen came in. Princess Louise, in handing her something, upset a flower glass and spilt the water, which simple incident sent her Majesty into fits of laughter, which seemed increased by the spectacle of Sir William Thomson, in an access of loyalty, wiping up the water with his pockethandkerchief and then squeezing it into his tea-cup. The Queen smiled over it till she went- awav."