“Labour is not to be shirked in the study of a great question; but it may be lightened ...by calling forth an energy which shall diminish it relatively.”
Thus says Prof. John Tyndall of the Royal Institution in the preface to his book ‘Heat – a Mode of Motion’ published in 1863. It takes the form of 18 lectures which must cover pretty well all aspects of the subject at that time and is the source of the cover illustration of this issue of the newsletter.
Prof. Tyndall’s exhortation to knuckle down has an almost religious fervour to it but that would have been the last thing on his mind. As Prof. Andrew Whitaker says in his article on page 29 that Tyndall’s address to the British Association in Belfast in August, 1874 was ‘a call for any religious input to science to be eliminated’ – a very different attitude to that of William Thomson.
The Belfast Address was a speech of monumental scope covering enormous ground, starting with possible thoughts of prehistoric man on ‘nature’, journeying through the ancient Greeks on atomism (pausing on the way to demolish Aristotle) to the dark ages in Europe. He describes how, during this time, science continued in more enlightened lands, speaking of the work of Alhazen. Turning back to Europe he gives a penetrating setting to the world of Copernicus, Galileo and Gassendi and romps through the atomism of Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, Locke and Newton. After a brief geological interlude he gets stuck into Darwin with all its consequent ramifications and concludes with a lengthy philosophical discourse.
Incidentally, my copy of the ‘Belfast Address’ appears in the 1875 issue of the ‘Year Book of Facts in the Arts and Sciences’ and I marvel at the range and detail it contains and wonder how such a publication would fare in this day and age. It was obviously aimed at a general readership with its advertisements for ‘Goodalls Baking Powder and Yorkshire Relish, and it reports the latest developments in Mechanics, Natural history, Technology, Chemistry and Geology to name but a few. Articles on the American lobster trade and the longevity of ‘Men of Science’, contrast wildly with those on the possible evidence of radiation pressure from experiments by ‘Mr Crookes’, a communication from the ‘Emperor of Brazil’ expressing his satisfaction with the newly installed Brazil-France telegraph cable, and a report on the adoption of ‘Sir William Thomson’s Eclipsing Lighthouse Device.
Lord Kelvin also gets a mention in John Tyndall’s book on heat as verifying James Thomson’s prediction that the freezing point of water is lower when under pressure - which brings me very conveniently back to the delightful picture elegantly illustrating this now very familiar effect, the wire melting its way through the block of ice, the water refreezing as it descends.
Malcolm Cooper
The 20th Annual General Meeting was held at 13.00 hrs on Thursday 15th November, at the University of Glasgow. It had two unusual features. First the meeting took place in the historic buildings of the University. Lord Kelvin used to lecture in the very room in which the meeting was held. Indeed in a recess in the wall was an ongoing experiment initiated by Kelvin to study the diffusion taking place between two different liquids. The second feature was that the AGM coincided with a visit to the University of Glasgow by the American Ambassador. This prompted a protest demonstration by a group of Glasgow students and necessitated many of those people attending the AGM to be escorted by men in black suits into the building via a side entrance.
Some twenty five members attended the AGM and in addition we welcomed as observers several members of the European Physical Society History Group, led by their Chairman Dr Peter Maria Schuster from Austria. The current Chair, Denis Weaire, decided to stand down from his position and the only nomination to replace him was Peter Ford, who had resigned his position as Secretary and Treasurer, and was duly elected. We are delighted that Denis will remain on the committee and would like to thank him for his sterling service as chair over several years. Peter Ford’s election meant that there was a vacancy for the position of Secretary and Treasurer. Unfortunately there were no candidates or nominations for these roles, which are thus still vacant. As the new chair I would greatly appreciate it if anybody was willing to take up these posts and welcome anyone expressing interest. The remainder of the committee were elected nem con and in addition we welcomed Ted Davis, currently Distinguished Research Fellow at the Department of materials Science and Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge and alsoEmeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Leicester, who was elected to the committee.
After the AGM we had a lecture programme with the general title of “Kelvin in Context”. This was to mark the centenary of the death of the great Victorian scientist William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, who spent some fifty three years as a Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow. The following lectures were given:
‘Kelvin the Telegrapher’ Professor Bruce Hunt, University of Texas, Austin
‘Kelvin at Glasgow’ Ken Sheldon, University of Glasgow
‘Kelvin the Irishman’ Professor Andrew Whittaker, Queens University, Belfast
‘Kelvin and the River Clyde’ Professor Crosbie Smith, University of Kent at
Canterbury
Crosbie Smith is the author, together with M Norton Wise, of a seminal book on Kelvin entitled ‘Energy and Empire’
The date and venue of our AGM and lecture programme was determined by a series of lectures the day before entitled “Kelvin 2007”, which was organised by the University of Glasgow and the Institute of Physics. It also gave delegates an opportunity to view a newly opened gallery devoted to Kelvin, which is located in the excellent University Museum. In organising our event I would like to thank Professor David Saxon and Professor Miles Padgett of the Physics Department of the University of Glasgow as well as other staff members of the University for their excellent help and assistance.
2007 was an active year for the group. On June 9th we had a successful half day meeting entitled “Physics at the Clarendon Laboratory”. A report on this, as well as articles on two of the three lectures, appeared in the previous Newsletter, number 22, which appeared last August. On October 3rd another highly successful half day meeting was held at the University of Bristol marking the discovery of the pi-meson and other fundamental particles. The organisation and funding for this was a joint effort between the History Group and the High Energy Particle Physics Group as well as the South Western Branch of the IOP and the University of Bristol. Lectures were given by:
Professor Don Perkins, Emeritus Professor University of Oxford
Professor Robin Marshall, University of Manchester
Dr David Falla, University of Aberystwyth
Professor Emilio Picasso, CERN
During the year two excellent Newsletters appeared (Numbers 21 and 22 in January and August respectively). A vote of thanks and appreciation was given to our newsletter editor Malcolm Cooper.
At the AGM in Glasgow there was a brief discussion of possible future meetings. The following important anniversaries in 2008 were noted: the first liquefaction of helium in 1908 by Kamerlingh Onnes in Leiden, the four hundredth anniversary of the invention of the telescope which was so profoundly developed by Galileo in the following years - Professor Malcolm Longair of the University of Cambridge is organising a meeting in connection with this. 2008 is also the sixtieth anniversary of the invention of the transistor - a joint meeting with the history section of the IET might be appropriate.
There was a discussion as to celebrating the 25th anniversary of the founding of the History of Physics group of the IOP and in particular over the precise date. From early notes it seems that discussions about the formation of a group started in 1982, a preliminary meeting was held in 1984 after which a steering committee was set up. The Council of the Institute approved the formation of the Group in July 1984. The first meeting took place on 20th February 1985 and the first AGM was on 3rd July 1985.
Which date we celebrate as the will depend on what is deemed to be the key event in the process of founding the group. Apparently there is nothing on record for 1983, so it would seem that the event to celebrate is either the formal establishment of the group in 1984, or possibly the first meeting in 1985. This means a celebration meeting would be in 2009 at the earliest.
However, there was overwhelming agreement that the anniversary should be celebrated -probably at IOP headquarters and although there is plenty of time to arrange something I would be pleased to hear from any pioneering members of the group as soon as possible and their views as to the best way to mark the occasion.
Peter Ford