The life of Sir J. J. Thomson, O. M. : sometime master of Trinity College Cambridge / by Lord Rayleigh.

  • Rayleigh, John William Strutt, Baron, 1842-1919
Date:
1932
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: The life of Sir J. J. Thomson, O. M. : sometime master of Trinity College Cambridge / by Lord Rayleigh. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    CHAPTER II EARLY DAYS OF THE CAVENDISH PROFESSORSHIP At the time of his appointment to the Cavendish Professorship J.J. Thomson was very young. There were few, if any, recent precedents at Cambridge for electing a professor of barely twenty- eight years of age. Glazebrook, who had done much under Rayleigh to build up the school of experimental physics, had hoped for the post, and I think that Rayleigh would at that time have considered him to be the safer appointment. ‘My doubt’, he said, ‘was whether Thomson should be professor of experimental physics. He had done very little experimenting at that time, though enough to show that he could do it. But he has shown since that it was right to appoint him.’ Glazebrook and W.N. Shaw, who had been Lord Rayleigh’s demonstrators, continued under Thomson, who was grateful for their help, realising, per¬ haps, that the promotion of a man younger and of less experience in experimental work than themselves, could not have been wholly agreeable to them. Halifax. December 1884. Dear Thomson, Forgive me if I have been wrong in not writing before to wish you happiness and success as Professor. The news of your election was too great a surprise to me to permit me to do so. I had looked on you as a mathematician, not an experimental physicist, and could not at first bring myself to regard you in that light. However, I think now on Christmas Day I can wish you prosperity. Shaw told you, I believe, about the assistant.... I should like to know your wishes as to next term. I am willing if you desire it to go [on] as I have been doing for a time and to settle during the term what my position and work is to be in the future. I think such an arrangement would be the best for the students at present and I myself hardly feel in a position to make any permanent agreement. Time may bring a different aspect on the face of things. Yours very truly, R. T. Glazebrook.