Experimentalists among the Mathematicians: Physics in the Cambridge Natural Sciences Tripos, 1851-1900

Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences

Volumn 12, Issue 2, 1982, Pages 325-371

  Wilson, David B ^a  

^a IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84968298414     PISSN: 00732672     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/27757499     Document Type: Article

References (78)

1. Maurice Crosland and Crosbie Smith, “The transmission of physics from France to Britain, 1800-1840,” HSPS, 9(1978), 1–61.
2. D. B. Wilson, “Herschel and Whewell’s version of Newtonianism,” Journal of the history of ideas, 35 (1974), 79–97.
3. E. M. Parkinson, DSB, s.v. “Stokes”; Wilson, “George Gabriel Stokes on stellar aberration and the luminiferous ether,” The British journal for the history of science, 6 (1972), 57–72.
4. “The kinetic atom,” American journal of physics, 49 (1981), 217–222.
5. Smith, “A new chart for British natural philosophy: The development of energy physics in the nineteenth century,” History of science, 16 (1978), 231–279.
6. Barbara Gusti Doran, Origins and consolidation of field theory in nineteenth- century Britain: From the mechanical to the electromagnetic view of nature, HSPS, 6 (1975), 133–260.
7. Ole Knudsen, “The Faraday effect and physical theory, 1845-1873,” Archive for history of exact sciences, 15 (1976), 235–281.
8. Stokes, “On the dynamical theory of diffraction,” Cambridge Philosophical Society, Transactions, 9 (1849), 1–62.
9. Kelvin, “On the dynamical theory of heat,” Royal Society of Edinburgh, Transactions, 20 (1851), 289–298.
10. James Clerk Maxwell, “A dynamical theory of the electromagnetic field,” RS, Philosophical transactions, 155 (1865), 459–512.
11. Herschel, “Presidential address,” BA, Reporti 1858), 2, 44.
12. Maxwell, “On the dynamical evidence of the molecular constitution of bodies” [1875], in The scientific papers of James Clerk Maxwell, ed. W. D. Niven (2 vols., Cambridge, 1890), 2, 418.
13. Joseph John Thomson, A treatise on the motion of vortex rings [1883] (London, 1968).
14. Applications of dynamics to physics and chemistry [1888] (London, 1968), 1.
15. W. Thomson and P. G. Tait, Treatise on natural philosophy (Oxford, 1867), reviewed favorably by Maxwell (ref. 21), 2, 776–785.
16. Smith (ref. 16); and Donald Franklin Moyer, “Continuum mechanics and field theory: Thomson and Maxwell,” Studies in history and philosophy of science, 9 (1978), 35–50.
17. O. Reynolds, “Memoir of James Prescott Joule,” Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, Memoirs and proceedings, 6 (1892), i–viii, 1-196, on 137.
18. S. P. Thompson, Michael Faraday. His life and work (New York, 1898), 165.
19. Maxwell, “Faraday” (ref. 21), 2, 360.
20. J. W. Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, “Presidential address,” Β A, Report (1882), 437–441.
21. John Ambrose Fleming, “Physics and physicists of the eighteen seventies,” Nature, 143 (1939), 99–102.
22. J. J. Thomson, Recollections and reflections (London, 1936), 134.
23. W. W. Rouse Ball, Cambridge papers (London, 1918), 258.
24. J. R. Tanner, ed., The historical register of the University of Cambridge (Cambridge, 1917).
25. Lawrence Stone, “The size and composition of the Oxford student body 1580-1910,” in Stone, ed., The university in society, (2 vols., Princeton, 1974), 1, 3–110, on 6.
26. Whewell, Thoughts on the study of mathematics as a part of a liberal education, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 1836), 40.
27. Robert H. Kargon, Science in Victorian Manchester: Enterprise and expertise (Baltimore and London, 1977), 174.
28. Airy’s lecture, “The late observations of total eclipses of the sun and the inferences from them,” apparently was not published. Cf. Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy, ed. Wilfred Airy (Cambridge, 1896), 3, 265-269, 273-280, 282-284, 287-288, 309.
29. J. G. Crowther, The Cavendish Laboratory, 1874-1974 (New York, 1974), 23–28.
30. R. F. Holmes, “A historical note on the natural sciences tripos,” The Cambridge review, 86 (1965), 199, 201-203, 222-223, 225, 235-239, 241.
31. G. D. Liveing, “Natural Sciences Tripos,” Student’s guide (1862) (ref. 31), 153–168, on 160; NST, 1855, chemistry, question 12.
32. Moyer, “Energy, dynamics, hidden machinery: Rankine, Thomson and Tait, Maxwell,” Studies in the history and philosophy of science, 8 (1977), 251–268, on 255.
33. Tait, “Presidential address,” BA, Report (1871), 2, 4–5.
34. Arthur Schuster, “The Clerk-Maxwell period,”
35. H. F. Newall, “1885-1894,” in A history of the Cavendish Laboratory, 1871-1910 (London, 1910), 14–39 and 102-158.
36. H. Lamb, “Clerk Maxwell as lecturer,” in James Clerk Maxwell: A commemoration volume, 1831-1931 (Cambridge, 1931), 109–115, 116-124, 130-141, 142-146.
37. Glazebrook, James Clerk Maxwell and modern physics (New York, 1896), 60–92.
38. Lewis Campbell and Garnett, The life of James Clerk Maxwell, ed. Kargon (New York and London, 1969), 314–405.
39. W. N. Shaw, “The Natural Sciences Tripos,” Student’s guide (1893) (ref. 31), 144, on 41.
40. J. J. Thomson, “Survey of the last twenty-five years,” and Newall, (ref. 55), 40–74, 75-101, 102-158, respectively.
41. Robert John Strutt, fourth Baron Rayleigh, John William Strutt, third Baron Rayleigh (London, 1924), 99–127.
42. L. R. Wilberforce, “The development of the teaching of physics,” History (ref. 55), 250–280, on 266.
43. J. J. Thomson, “Survey” (ref. 63), 86.
44. J. J. Thomson, “The functions of lectures and text-books in science teaching,” Nature, 88 (1912), 399–400.
45. Thomson, “Presidential address,” BA, Report (1896), 700–701.
46. Cf. Thomson, “Presidential address,” BA, Report (1909), 9.
47. Thomson, “Presidential address,” BA, Report (1931), 24–25.
48. R. J. Strutt, 4th Baron Rayleigh, The life of Sir J. J Thomson (Cambridge, 1942), 244–245.
49. George and Joan Thomson, “J. J. Thomson as we remember him,” RS, Notes and records, 12 (1957), 201–210, on 206.
50. Cf.Thomson “J. H. Poynting,” RS, Proceedings, 92A (1915), i–ix.
51. cf.T. J. N. Hilken, Engineering at Cambridge University, 1783-1965 (Cambridge, 1967), 79–84, 119-121.
52. J. J. Thomson to Threlfall, 9 May 1886, Thomson papers, CUL, Add. MS 7654, T8.
53. W. L. Mollison and Larmor, flyer concerning the proposed mechanical sciences tripos, 8 Mar 1887, CUL, DC 5300.
54. Thomson, “Survey” (ref. 63), 86. Cf. discussion of the Board’s report in the CUR (9 Feb 1886), 405–407.
55. J. J. Thomson, “Growth” (ref. 73), 21.
56. J. J. Thomson, Notes on recent researches in electricity and magnetism, intended as a sequel to Professor Clerk-Maxwell’s treatise on electricity and magnetism (Oxford, 1893), vi.
57. J. J. Thomson, Elements of the mathematical theory of electricity and magnetism, 4th ed. (Cambridge, 1909), v–vi; quotation from the preface to the first ed., 1895.
58. C. W. Previté-Orton, ed., Index to tripos lists, 1748-1910, contained in the historical register of the University of Cambridge to the year 1910 (Cambridge, 1923).
59. J. A. Venn, Alumni cantabrigienses, 1752-1900; (6 vols., Cambridge, 1940-1954).
60. Fleming, Memories of a scientific life (London and Edinburgh, 1934), 68.
61. D. S. L. Cardwell, The organization of science in England, 2nd ed. (London, 1972), 157–167, 179-184, 208-217.
62. Romualdas Sviedrys, “The rise of physics laboratories in Britain,” HSPS, 7 (1976), 405–436, on 420-421.
63. Cf. Sviedrys, “The rise of physical science at Victorian Cambridge,” HSPS, 2 (1970), 127–151.
64. “An analysis of the Cavendish Laboratory (1874-1914),” Congrès international d’histoire des sciences, XII, Actes, 9 (Paris, 1971), 123–127.
65. John G. Wilson, Dictionary of national biography, s.v. “C. T. R. Wilson.” 94.
66. Paul Forman, Heilbron, and Spencer Weart, Physics circa 1900: Personnel, funding, and productivity of the academic establishments (Princeton, 1975), 32–33 (HSPS, 5).
67. William Cecil Dampier [Whetham], Cambridge and elsewhere (London, 1950), 17.
68. Harvey W. Becher, “William Whewell and Cambridge mathematics,” HSPS, 11 (1980), 1–48.
69. D. A. Winstanley, Early Victorian Cambridge (Cambridge, 1955), 148–269.
70. Roy Porter, “The Natural Sciences Tripos and the ‘Cambridge school of geology,’”
71. W. F. Bynum, “Anatomy and physiology in the NST,” (both unpublished).
72. Gerald Geison, Sir Michael Foster and the Cambridge school of English physiology (Princeton, 1978)
73. Porter, “Gentlemen and geology: The emergence of a scientific career, 1660-1920,” The historical journal 21 (1978), 809–836.
74. Roy MacLeod and Russell Moseley, “The ‘naturals’ and Victorian Cambridge: Reflections on the anatomy of an elite, 1851-1914,” Oxford review of education, 6(1980), 177–195.
75. G. K. Roberts, “The liberally-educated chemist: Chemistry in the Cambridge Natural Sciences Tripos, 1851-1914,” HSPS, 11 (1980), 157–183.
76. John Frederick William Herschel, A preliminary discourse on the study of natural philosophy (New York and London, 1966), §20.
77. Herschel, Astronomy (London, 1833), §7.
78. Herschel, Discourse (ref. 6), §115, §23, respectively.