Volume 1

The life & experiences of Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe ... / written by himself.

  • Henry Enfield Roscoe
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The life & experiences of Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe ... / written by himself. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    long before the institution fortunately fell into the hands of the philanthropist, the late Mr. Quintin Hogg. “ Shall I ever/’ I thought, “attain to the position of a scientific lecturer and burn phosphorus in oxygen on a large scale before an admiring audience ? ” Another of my experimental delights was firework¬ making under the guidance of my elder cousin, Roscoe Jevons. We used to spend every half-holiday in the summer and autumn preparing our fireworks for the 5th of November. We worked in an old stable which had been converted into a laboratory, near the house of my uncle by marriage, Thomas Jevons, the father of Stanley Jevons. On one occasion we were drying in front of a fire a quantity of rockets, squibs, and Roman candles which had been packed moist in their cases when one of them ignited and set some of the others off. Our presence of mind in throwing the burning ones out of the window saved a catastrophe, for there were several pounds of blasting powder lying uncov¬ ered on the table, and if this had ignited the roof would have been blown off and we boys probably sent into eternity. On the whole I had a very happy boyhood. My cousins the Booths and I were on the most intimate terms. The Booths belonged to an old and respected Liverpool family. Charles Booth, my uncle by marriage, and the father of the Rt. Hon. Charles Booth, the eminent statistician, had built himself a house just outside the Prince’s Park on land that belonged to the family. This park had been given to the borough by Mr. Richard Yates. The Yateses were another well-known Liverpool family and are connected with some of my earliest associations. They were great friends of Harriet Martineau, with whom they made the journey to the East. Mr. Yates was a very small c 2,
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