John William Strutt, third baron Rayleigh, O.M., F.R.S., sometime president of the Royal society and chancellor of the University of Cambridge / by his son Robert John Strutt, fourth baron Rayleigh.

  • Robert Strutt, 4th Baron Rayleigh
Date:
1924
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: John William Strutt, third baron Rayleigh, O.M., F.R.S., sometime president of the Royal society and chancellor of the University of Cambridge / by his son Robert John Strutt, fourth baron Rayleigh. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    who are met with at such meetings. This gentleman’s demon¬ stration was followed with agreement to a certain point, up to a step in the argument which was disallowed. He offered an alternative reasoning, but his listener had had enough. After the B.A. was over they went back to Whittingehame, which, my father concluded, would be the most convenient route home to Essex. Trinity College, Nov. 1st (1870). My dearest Mother,— I came here this morning from Hatfield. We bad at first a very learned party but as usual I outraged most of them. Miss M. Alderson was there but not her younger sister, who was still in Scotland. Mrs. Gladstone has asked me to go there on Dec. 5th, and I think I shall go though in some ways it is rather incon¬ venient. A.B. [Arthur Balfour] is to be there. Lord S. [Salisbury] does not think we shall have war with Russia. He took me into his laboratory which also serves as a dressing room and showed me some magnetic experiments which I am supposed to explain ! He is too awkward to succeed well as an experimenter I think. Your affec: son, John W. Strutt. The following letter from Lord Salisbury shows that the required explanation was forthcoming, and in part at least satisfied that sceptical mind :— Hatfield, Dec. 5th, 1870. My dear Strutt,—• Many thanks for your letter. Your explanation is very clear and I have no doubt in the main satisfies the facts. But there are two experiments which I should like some day to show you, which hardly seem to square with it. My difficulty arises exclu¬ sively in those cases where the mass of iron added increases the induction. The other set of cases when it diminishes the induction I will set aside as explained. . . The visit to the Gladstones at Hawarden was duly paid. He was deeply interested in Mr. Gladstone’s personality. He admired his originality and power, and was fond of contrasting it with his curious incapacity for scientific thinking. The following anecdotes are on record. “ Staying at Hawarden after my first American visit, I