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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    he was a mild young man, and she a sulky ill-tempered creature, he had to get everything she wanted whatever the price.... The pictures [I bought] are very quaint things: they are on copper and represent the battle of Lepanto, a battle between the Christians and the Turks about 1570; the sympathies of the artist were evidently with the Christians for he has represented their dead disappearing as angels, while the Turkish dead make their exit as devils. . .. There is a story about an American small boy going about which is rather amusing, and since it illustrates the difficulty of scoring off that specimen of humanity it may, I hope, be called instructive. It is as follows : Mamma (to small boy who has been lying). Tommy, did you ever hear of Ananias and Sapphira? Tommy. Hear of them, Ma? I knew them both. Mamma (severely). Oh Tommy, do you know where they went for telling stories? Tommy. Yes Ma, I saw ’em go. The story at the end of this letter has seemed relevant to the subject of this book because it is very typical of the kind of humour which pleased J.J. From Prof. G. F. Fitzgerald of Trinity College, Dublin'. Thorncliffe, Monks town, Co. Cork. 2yd August, 1886. My dear Thomson, I am looking about for excuses not to go to Birmingham and the last sufficient reason for going is because you wrote to me about bringing on a discussion about the Electromagnetic Theory of Light and I said I would help to confound the Jelly-theorists but at the same time I was very uncertain from the way you wrote whether you certainly intended bringing it on and if you have given up the idea or do not still ask my concurrence I will gladly accept the opportunity of a continued vegetation in the lazy atmosphere of Cork rather than the feverish activity of a Brit. Assn, meeting in Birmingham. If you don’t get this in time for me to get your reply by Monday morning the 30th don’t bother to answer as my fate will be decided without the assistance of your wisdom. I have a letter half written to you for months on the vortex atom theory of gases but my idle brain has succumbed to the temptations of its natural feeble laziness and has not decided what becomes of the irrotational energy in adiabatic expansions. However, I am afraid my