Science and opportunity in London, 1871–85: The diary of Herbert McLeod

History of Science

Volumn 41, Issue 4, 2003, Pages 427-458

  Gay, Hannah ^a  

^a IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 84996237043     PISSN: 00732753     EISSN: 17538564     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/007327530304100403     Document Type: Article

References (165)

1. Imperial College London (IC) archives: Herbert McLeod Diary 1860–1923. The first eleven years of this diary have been transcribed; see James Frank A. J. L. (ed.), Chemistry and theology in mid-Victorian London: The diary of Herbert McLeod, 1860–70 (London and New York, microfiche, 1987). McLeod's diary is largely a catalogue of events, personal views are rarely stated. While a poor source for quotation, it is likely a more reliable historical source than an opinionated diary would be.
2. Woolf Virginia, Orlando (London, 1942), 135.
3. Similar themes relating to career formation are raised in Gay Hannah, Barrett Anne, “Should the cobbler stick to his last? Silvanus Phillips Thompson and the making of a scientific career”, The British journal for the history of science, xxxv (2002), 151–86.
4. Roberts Gerrylynn K., ‘“A plea for pure science’: The ascendancy of academia in the making of the English chemist”, in Knight David, Kragh Helge (eds), The making of the chemist: The social history of chemistry in Europe (Cambridge, 1998), 107–19.
5. The Chemical Society, founded in 1841, at first served a mixed constituency of chemical practitioners. Members of the society of McLeod's generation helped form two new bodies, the Society of Chemical Industry and the Institute of Chemistry. The success of these, the first a society for chemical manufacturers, the second a standards-setting body for chemical practice, resulted in the Chemical Society's becoming more oriented to academic science by the end of the nineteenth century. Morris Peter J. T., Russell Colin A., Smith John Graham, Archives of the British chemical industry, 1750–1914 (Faringdon, 1988), 103.
6. See also, Bud Robert, Roberts Gerrylynn K., Science versus practice: Chemistry in Victorian Britain (Manchester, 1984).
7. It has been estimated that by 1902 there were still only about 300 academic positions for scientists in British universities. See Alter Peter, The reluctant patron: Science and the state in Britain, 1850–1920, transl. by Davis Angela (New York, 1987), 225.
8. The Royal Commission on Scientific Instruction and the Advancement of Science sat from 1870 to 1875 and issued eight reports. Chaired by the Duke of Devonshire, it reflects a watershed in changing attitudes towards science. During the 1870s, Britain's lack of good centres for the teaching of advanced technical and scientific subjects became a subject of discussion among politicians and the larger public. See Argles Michael, South Kensington to Robbins: An account of English technical education and science education since 1851 (London, 1964), chap. 2.
9. Among those sitting on the Devonshire Commission were the scientists Lubbock John, Huxley T. H., Stokes G. G., while its secretary was the young J. Norman Lockyer who later promoted the cause of scientific and technical instruction in the pages of Nature.
10. For further details on government patronage of science in this period see MacLeod R. M., “Science and the Treasury: Principles, personalities and politics, 1870–85”, in Turner G. L'E. (ed.), The patronage of science in the nineteenth century (Leyden, 1976), 115–72.
11. See, for example, Perkin Harold, The rise of professional society in England since 1880 (London and New York, 1989).
12. For the X Club and the making of professional careers see Desmond Adrian, “Redefining the X axis: ‘Professionals’, ‘amateurs’ and the making of mid-Victorian biology — A progress report”, Journal of the history of biology, xxxiv (2001), 3–50.
13. (This issue of the journal is given over to a discussion of professionalization in biology.) See also Barton Ruth, ‘“Huxley, Lubbock and half a dozen others’: Professionals and gentlemen in the formation of the X-Club, 1851–1864”, Isis, lxxxix (1998), 410–44, and
14. idem, ‘“Men of science’: Language, identity and professionalization in the mid-Victorian scientific community”, History of science, xli (2003), 73–119.
15. Professionalization is also briefly discussed in some of the essays in Turner Frank M., Contesting cultural authority: Essays in Victorian intellectual life (Cambridge, 1993) and
16. in Heyck T. W., The transformation of intellectual life in Victorian England (London, 1982).
17. As others have pointed out, gentlemen scientists were still commonplace in the nineteenth century; many were included in the scientific élite. See, for example, Porter Roy, “Gentlemen and geology: The emergence of a scientific career, 1660–1920”, Historical journal, xxi (1978), 809–36.
18. In the later nineteenth century there were still many important gentleman (in the sense of wealthy, amateur and élite) scientists; for example, Huggins William, Gladstone John H., Lubbock John, de la Rue Warren, Rayleigh Lord, Spottiswoode William — All mentioned in McLeod's diary.
19. Turner, All mentioned in McLeod's diary (ref. 10).
20. This theme is discussed in Gay Hannah, “East End, West End: Science, education, culture and class in mid-Victorian London”, Canadian journal of history, xxxii (1997), 153–83.
21. Desmond, Canadian journal of history (ref. 10), 4.
22. As discussed, for example, in Shapin Steven, A social history of truth (Chicago, 1994).
23. Despite their poverty, McLeod's family retained middle-class ideals of respectability. McLeod was fairly well educated, including having a good command of French. The Royal Panopticon of Science and Arts was a short-lived enterprise for scientific and trades exhibits, and lectures. Some private instruction was given there. Founded in 1853, its building was sold in 1857 and became the Alhambra Music Hall. See Sheppard F. H. W. (ed.), Survey of London, xxxiv: The parish of St. Anne, Soho (London, 1966).
24. See also, Altick Richard D., The shows of London (Cambridge MA, 1978), 490–6.
25. For details see Gay Hannah, ‘“Pillars of the college’: Assistants at the Royal College of Chemistry, 1846–71”, Ambix, xlvii (2000), 135–69.
26. For the development of research activity in German universities see Farrar Wilfrid Vernon, “Science and the German university system 1790–1850”, in Crosland M. P. (ed.), The emergence of science in Western Europe (Basingstoke, 1975), 273–96.
27. For discussion of struggles over academic research in the 1870s and '80s see Gay Hannah, “Association and practice: The City and Guilds of London Institute for the Advancement of Technical Education”, Annals of science, lvii (2000), 369–98.
28. Some other of Hofmann's London students became professors but his more eminent students, such as William Perkin, Frederick Abel, William Crookes and Carl Martius, had major industrial, entrepreneurial, or government careers. By contrast, many of his Berlin students (he taught there from 1865) had illustrious academic careers; among them was Otto Wallach, a 1910 Nobel Laureate.
29. See, for example, Brock William H., The Fontana history of chemistry (London. 1992), 405–8;
30. Desmond Adrian, The Fontana history of chemistry (ref. 10), espec. pp. 28–29.
31. Berman Morris, “‘Hegemony’ and the amateur tradition in British science”, Journal of social history, viii (1975), 30–50;
32. Morrell Jack, Thackray Arnold, Gentlemen of science: Early years of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (Oxford, 1981);
33. and Knight David, The Age of Science: The scientific world-view in the nineteenth century (Oxford, 1986), 133–6.
34. Lodge had early decided to learn what he could of the new electromagnetic theory, and contributed to it by using his considerable experimental skills to test a variety of models. See Hunt Bruce J., The Maxwellians (Ithaca and London, 1991). Lodge's support of spiritualism and psychical research was publicly known and, in some circles, counted against him. However, he was also a respected spokesman for social reform, including women's suffrage and higher educational opportunities for women. It was his social reform speeches that Joseph Chamberlain found attractive, prompting him to persuade Lodge to take the principalship of the new University of Birmingham in 1900.
35. See Jolly W. P., Sir Oliver Lodge (London, 1974), 131–44.
36. I am indebted to Frank James's index to his transcription of the first eleven years of the McLeod diary for being able to make this claim. See James, Sir Oliver Lodge (ref. 2). St Lawrence Jewry was a church much engaged in missionary work and attracted many young people for that reason.
37. Temple Frederick et al. (eds), Essays and reviews (Farnborough, 1970), facsimile of first edn (London, 1860).
38. Ninety-nine published responses are listed in the British Library catalogue. Altholz Josef L., Anatomy of a controversy: The debate over Essays and Reviews, 1860–1864 (Aldershot, 1994).
39. Alexander (Alec) Gillman (1843–1903) became a brewery chemist;
40. Groves Charles (1841–1920) was later editor of the Journal of the Chemical Society;
41. Howard David (1839–1916) became a major chemical manufacturer;
42. Berger Capel (1839–68) died young, the result of a chemical accident. McLeod, Gillman, Groves and Howard remained life-long friends. There are many entries on the Declaration in the McLeod diary.
43. See also Brock W. H., MacLeod R. M., “The Scientists' Declaration: Reflexions on science and belief in the wake of Essays and Reviews”, The British journal for the history of science, ix (1976), 39–66.
44. Gay Hannah, ‘“The Declaration of the Students of the Natural and Physical Sciences’ revisited: Youth, science and religion in mid-Victorian Britain”, forthcoming in Sweet William (ed.), volume currently under review.
45. Some of the correspondence is in the Cambridge University Library (MS. Add. 5989). McLeod, while the principal organizer, was not alone in making important contacts. See Brock, McLeod, Gay, opera cit. (ref. 30).
46. Lord Sackville Arthur Cecil (1848–1899) was a student at Cambridge and took a degree in 1869. However, he spent much of his time in London as an occasional student at the RSM. There are many references to Sackville Cecil in McLeod's diary. See, for example, 31 Oct. 1867, 4 Nov. and 4 Jun. 1869, and 2 Jan. 1871.
47. Sackville Cecil worked on, and probably invested in, the French Atlantic cable and a number of other projects. According to Robin Harcourt Williams, archivist of the Salisbury papers, Sackville Cecil was one of the wealthiest of his generation of Cecils, in terms of disposable income (personal communication). William Thomson was friendly with the Earl and Countess of Derby (her first husband was the second Marquess of Salisbury) and it is interesting to speculate whether his having helped Sackville Cecil played a role in his later elevation to the peerage. The peerage was given during Lord Salisbury's premiership, and scientific success had never been so rewarded before (John Herschel had earlier been given a baronetcy). Kelvin's latest biographers speculate that, for the peerage, Thomson's active (Unionist) support of the government on the Irish question was as important as his contributions to cable telegraphy. See Smith Crosbie, Wise M. Norton, Energy and empire: A biographical study of Lord Kelvin (Cambridge, 1989), 807–9.
48. Sackville Cecil returned to telegraphy later in life and held directorships in several major telegraphy companies. See obituary notice, Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, xxvii (1899), 665–7.
49. McLeod diary: See, for example, 9 June 1871. There is no record of his having received payment for this work, mainly analyses of dyes in wallpapers, and of wines.
50. When a young teenager, Sackville Cecil connected the turret clock at Hatfield House to an electric regulator clock. See obituary, Journal of the Physical Society of London, 1899, 6–8 (anon. but written by McLeod).
51. For further details on electric clocks see Gay Hannah, “Clock synchrony, time distribution and electrical timekeeping in Britain, 1880–1925”, in press, Past and present.
52. For telephone see diary McLeod, 11 Oct. 1877. A few days later, Sackville Cecil wrote to McLeod that he had successfully communicated between his house and Liverpool Street Station (25 Oct. 1877). As will be mentioned below, they reported this work to the Physical Society.
53. Roberts Andrew, Salisbury, Victorian titan (London, 1999), 114.
54. See also pp. 133, 205, 242 and 281.
55. Electrical trades shops that McLeod frequently visited included Apps's on the Strand, Becker's on St Martin's Lane, Cetti's on Brooke Street in Holborn, Neeve's on Regent Street and Zimmerman's on Fenchurch Street. From the few references in the diary to cost of apparatus it would appear that Lord Salisbury spent a large sum on his electrification, especially in installing lamps and continually upgrading them. For a systematic treatment of some laboratories and workshops engaged in electrical work, see Fox Robert, Guagnini Anna, “Laboratories, workshops and sites: Concepts and practices of research in industrial Europe, 1800–1914”. Historical studies in the physical and biological sciences, xxix (1998), 55–140.
56. McLeod diary: 4 June 1874.
57. Lodge Oliver, Past years: An autobiography (London, 1931), 144.
58. For party see McLeod diary: 28–31 Dec. 1874. The marquess had a hydrogen generating apparatus in his dressing room.
59. Cecil David, The Cecil's of Hatfield House: An English ruling family (Boston, 1973), 239.
60. Hatfield House boasts the dubious distinction of having had the first death by electrocution in Britain. I do not know whether the claim is true but William Dimmock, a gardener helping with the installations, was killed in 1881. McLeod gave advice on how to make the equipment safer. Hatfield House archives: 3M/E, letter from McLeod to Salisbury, 14 Dec. 1881.
61. For example, he was asked how to deal with noxious gases that were rising from the burial vaults in Hatfield church and suggested spreading masses of charcoal around. McLeod diary: 15 July 1871.
62. Morley Henry, “Herbert McLeod”, Journal of the Chemical Society, cxxv (1924), 990–2.
63. See also Thorpe T. E., “Herbert McLeod, 1841–1923”, Proceedings of the Royal Society, A/cv (1924), pp. x–xi.
64. He was invited both during Gladstone's premiership, and during Disraeli's second premiership when Lord Derby (Stanley E. H., 1826–93) was Foreign Secretary.
65. McLeod diary: See entries for August 1880. Clearly in the Cecil family's relations with Tyndall, science trumped religion. In McLeod's case he had good relations with people of all kinds of religious persuasion but, with a few exceptions, his closest friends were High Anglicans.
66. Details on setting up the RIEC, and on hiring, can be found in the Public Record Office, Kew: India Office records, 1DR/1/PWD/8/8. The other three finalists were Henry Armstrong, Edmund Mills and George Carey Foster. Mills and Armstrong had been students at the RCC shortly after McLeod and, like him, had been assistants to Frankland. Both gained their doctorates in Germany and later found appointments, respectively, as professors of chemistry at the Andersonian college in Glasgow and at the City and Guilds College in South Kensington. The eldest, Carey Foster (1835–1919), had trained in chemistry under A. W. Williamson at University College. He, too, gained a doctorate in chemistry in Germany, but then turned to physics and, after a brief spell in Glasgow at the Andersonian, was appointed professor of physics at University College London in 1865. Frederick Guthrie, Edmund Atkinson, Silvanus Thompson and Henry Madan are further examples of people mentioned in McLeod's diary who were trained in chemistry but held positions teaching physics. For Carey Foster and Guthrie see Brock William H., “The chemical origins of practical physics”, Bulletin of the history of chemistry, xxi (1998), 1–11.
67. Lord Salisbury succeeded the Duke of Argyll as Secretary of State for India in February 1874, at which time McLeod wrote to him saying he was pleased that he was now his “new chief. McLeod diary: 21 Feb. 1874. George T. Chesney is perhaps best remembered today as the author of The Battle of Dorking (Toronto, 1871), reprint of work first serialized in Blackwood's magazine. This fictional work envisages a military invasion of Britain by Germany.
68. Robert Bellamy Clifton had been professor of physics at Owen's College before moving to Oxford. He was a proponent of practical studies, despite his own more theoretical Cambridge education. Clifton built a laboratory at Oxford, designed for practical instruction, with money from the Clarendon Trust. The origin of practical physics teaching in universities is well documented in Gooday Graeme J. N., “Precision measurement and the genesis of physics teaching laboratories in Victorian Britain”, PhD thesis (1989), University of Kent at Canterbury. McLeod's chemical laboratory was largely modelled on Frankland's teaching laboratory at the RSM.
69. Louis Schwendler helped set up the telegraphy course. A former electrical superintendent for the Indian Government Telegraphic Service, Schwendler had earlier returned to England because of ill health. His successor in India was his former assistant, William Ayrton. Schwendler's textbook was used by the students: Schwendler Louis, Instructions for testing telegraph lines and the technical arrangements of offices (London and Edinburgh, 1878–80).
70. For the global reach of telegraphy see Hunt Bruce J., “Doing science in a global empire: Cable telegraphy and electrical physics in Victorian Britain”, in Lightman Bernard (ed.), Victorian science in context (Chicago, 1997), 313–33.
71. McLeod records visiting many laboratories; he, too received visits from other scientists. Among them: John Perry (then honorary assistant to William Thomson), 3 Mar. 1875;
72. Hofmann A. Wilhelm, 11 Apr. 1875;
73. de la Rue Warren, 3 Aug. 1876;
74. Spottiswoode William, 11 Aug. 1876;
75. Guthrie Frederick, 17 Aug. 1876;
76. Gladstone John, 2 Nov. 1878;
77. Ayrton William, 5–6 Apr. 1879;
78. Siemens William, 18 Mar. 1882;
79. Perkin William, 3 June 1882; and Oliver Lodge and George Fitzgerald, 27 Mar. 1885. There were several return visits.
80. Quoted in Cuddy Brendan P., “The Royal Indian Engineering College, Cooper's Hill, 1871–1906”, PhD thesis (1980), Chelsea College, University of London, 105. This thesis is deposited in the library of the Brunei University campus at Cooper's Hill.
81. Hindi and some Indian history were also on the curriculum. Quotation from a report on the new college, The Times, 7 Aug. 1871, 10.
82. Clarke George Sydenham (1848–1933) went on to make a major military administrative career and was created a baron, becoming Lord Sydenham in 1913. Though married, Clarke spent much time in the evenings together with McLeod on joint research work, or in activities such as looking for glow worms, or watching for meteors. McLeod fell in love with Clarke's sister-in-law, but Mrs Clarke told him “his case was hopeless”. For meteors see, for example, 11 Aug. 1871; quotation, 14 Mar. 1872.
83. For Cambridge wranglers (those obtaining first-class honours in the final mathematical examination), see Warwick Andrew, Masters of theory: Cambridge and the rise of mathematical physics (Chicago, 2003).
84. McLeod diary: See, for example, 20 Mar. 1873, 4 Nov. 1880. William Henry Stone (1830–91) was pictured in later years as living a life “mostly to himself with his kindly old housekeeper, his owls, and his multitudinous apparatus”. Munk's Roll of the Royal College of Physicians, London, iv (1955), 140.
85. McLeod diary. For the inaugural dinner see 18 Feb. 1876. After the dinner McLeod stayed overnight with Duncan at his Abbey Road home.
86. Walker E. G., William Cawthorne Unwin (London, 1938).
87. McLeod diary: 7 Aug. 1871. Students needed classics and English literature, in addition to technical subjects, for the entrance examinations.
88. McLeod diary: See, for example, 6 Feb. 1875. McLeod developed his meteorological station over the years and records that, on more than one occasion, he was urged to patent his inventions. See, for example, entry for 28 June 1884.
89. McLeod diary: 14–17 Dec. 1876. Nordenskiold A. E. (1832–1901), explorer of the Arctic and the North-West Passage, had sent the mud to London.
90. Schaffer S., “Where experiments end: Tabletop trials in Victorian astronomy”, in Buchwald Jed Z. (ed.), Scientific practice: Theories and stories of doing physics (Chicago, 1995), 257–99;
91. see also Galton Francis, Memoirs of my life (London, 1908), chap.9. The Kew Observatory, built by George III, was at this time run by the British Association; its instruments were later taken over by the National Physical Laboratory with which McLeod had an association later in his life.
92. Hicks's in Hatton Garden manufactured and sold McLeod's sunshine recorder which was much in demand. For example, Benjamin Vincent asked for one for the Royal Institution; McLeod diary: 5 Apr. 1885.
93. See also McLeod Herbert, “Note on a sunshine recorder”, Nature, 5 Feb. 1885, 319–20.
94. For his work on water purity while at the RCC see Gay, Nature (ref. 19).
95. McLeod diary: For example, 16 Jan. 1873.
96. McLeod Herbert, “Apparatus for measurement of low pressures of gas”, Proceedings of the Physical Society of London, i (1876), 30–34;
97. also in Philosophical magazine, xlviii (1874), 110–13.
98. McLeod diary: See, for example, 8–9 Feb. 1875. Unwin later became eminent in the field of hydro-electricity generation. He helped design major installations at Niagara Falls and in the Himalayas.
99. McLeod diary: 22–23 May and 17 June 1875. (I do not understand the need for high velocity spinning plates.).
100. McLeod diary: For example, 5 Apr. 1875, 29 Mar. 1876. McLeod, who constructed much glassware for the spectroscopic analysis of gases at low pressures, including Sprengel pumps, would have had the, then still rare, glassblowing skills to have been able to make radiometers, but does not appear to have done so. Crookes's radiometers, made by his assistant Charles Gimingham, were widely admired at the time. See Gay Hannah, “Invisible resource: William Crookes and his circle of support”, The British journal for the history of science, xxix (1996), 311–36.
101. McLeod diary: For example, 11 Jan. 1884. Shortly after this demonstration, Unwin moved his testing machine to his laboratory at the new City and Guilds' Central Institution in South Kensington. There he increased the weight to 100 tons; his successor Stephen Dixon increased it to 300 tons and later it was increased even further.
102. McLeod diary: See, for example, 10 Dec. 1876, 21 July 1877, and 21 June 1879. Many of the tuning forks were made by A. J. Ellis, FRS. The machine speed apparatus was demonstrated at the Royal Society on 25 Apr. 1877 when T. H. Huxley brought the Prince of Teck (Franz Paul Karl of Würtemberg, father of Mary of Teck, later Queen of England) to look at the apparatus and, again, at the Physical Society on 28 April. McLeod Herbert, Clarke George Sydenham, “On some figures exhibiting the motion of vibrating bodies, and on a new method for testing the speed of machines”, Proceedings of the Royal Society, xxvi (1878), 157–63;
103. idem, “On the determination of the rate of vibration of tuning forks”, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society, clxxi(1880), 1–14.
104. McLeod diary: 28 Dec. 1877. McLeod noted that he was pleased to have William Thomson's approval, one of the few places in the diary where he records his feelings. The tuning forks were kept vibrating by playing a double bass and the bowing required some skill.
105. The leading figure in tuning fork science at this time was Rudolf Koenig of Paris. For a discussion of his work see Thompson S. P., “Address of the President”, Proceedings of the Physical Society of London, 1901, 12–25.
106. McLeod diary: McLeod records his first visit, 28–30 Nov. 1885. He was clearly impressed by “the immense amount of apparatus” in two large laboratories, and by the delicate weighing apparatus in a tunnel below the conservatory.
107. McLeod diary: 23–25 Jan. 1873.
108. McLeod diary: For example of a factory visit see 13 Jan. 1882.
109. Augustus George Vernon Harcourt (1834–1919) taught chemistry at Christ Church where he converted the former anatomy museum into a chemical laboratory. Madan and Harcourt were the authors of a chemistry textbook, Exercises in practical chemistry (Oxford, 1869).
110. King M. Christine, “The course of chemical change: The life and times of Augustus G. Vernon Harcourt (1834–1919)”, Ambix, xxxi (1984), 16–31.
111. McLeod diary: See. for example, the entry on Benjamin Brodie's visit to Eton on 11 July 1873. McLeod's cousin, Frank Tarver, was a master at Eton.
112. McLeod diary: See, for example, 6 July 1875.
113. The Royal Holloway College was founded in 1886.
114. For the sale of McLeod's apparatus to Harcourt, see Gay, Ambix (ref. 19). Dixon later became professor of chemistry in Manchester.
115. For example, after a dinner at the Chemical Club they went together to hear Crookes give a paper at the Royal Society on phosphorescent bodies in vacuo. McLeod diary: 19 May 1881.
116. McLeod diary: 3–4 Apr. 1875. McLeod had spent much time organizing the demonstrations for Hofmann's lecture, given at the Royal Institution on 18 March. Several dinners and receptions followed the lecture. McLeod was later appointed an external examiner in chemistry at Oxford.
117. Holford Robert, Bosanquet Maxwell, FRS (1841–1912), was a mathematician and older brother of the philosopher Bernard Bosanquet.
118. McLeod diary: 13 Mar. 1875, 4 Aug. 1876. Warren de la Rue, FRS (1815–89), studied chemistry with Hofmann and worked for his family's stationery and printing firm. He used his chemical skills in the printing of postal stamps and bank notes. An accomplished man, he is mainly remembered for his amateur scientific work in celestial photography, and for devising the Kew heliograph for the daily photography of the Sun. For de la Rue's role in the family firm see Houseman Lorna, The house that Thomas built (London, 1968).
119. McLeod diary: 28 Nov. 1885. Whipple, who helped promote McLeod's sunshine recorder, worked at the Kew Observatory.
120. One attraction in Guthrie's laboratory was a Wimshurst machine with 7ft diameter plates. Recording his South Kensington visit on 24 Jan. 1885, McLeod mentions that the talk at dinner after the Physical Society meeting was mainly about the dynamite explosions in the House of Commons. As one might expect major events often entered discussions among scientists. A further example noted by McLeod: After E. E. Klein gave a Royal Society paper challenging Robert Koch's cholera theory, people were far more interested in discussing the fall of Khartoum than the merit of Klein's ideas (5 Feb. 1885). For Klein, Koch and the water problems of the 1880s see Hamlin Christopher, A science of impurity: Water analysis in nineteenth-century Britain (Bristol, 1990), 253–60.
121. For Ayrton's work see Gooday Graeme J. N., “The morals of energy metering: Constructing and deconstructing the precision of the Victorian electrical engineer's ammeter and voltmeter”, in Wise M. Norton (ed.), The values of precision (Princeton, 1995), chap. 10; and
122. idem, “Teaching telegraphy and electrotechnics in the physics laboratory: William Ayrton and the creation of an academic space for electrical engineering, 1874–84”, History of technology, xiii (1991), 73–114.
123. For the interest in precision measurements more generally, see idem, “Precision measurement and the genesis of physics teaching laboratories”, The British journal for the history of science, xxiii (1990), 25–51.
124. He attended Frankland's first lecture in the new theatre at South Kensington on 21 Oct. 1872, and published the occasional chemical paper; for example, McLeod Herbert, “Note on the formation of ozone during the slow oxidation of phosphorus”, Journal of the Chemical Society, xxxvii (1880), 118–20.
125. Ozone was first made by Schönbein in 1840 and, later, by passing oxygen over white phosphorus. Schönbein C. F., “Über die Erzeugung des Ozons auf chemischen Wege”, Poggendorff's Annalen der Physik, lxiii (1844), 520–30.
126. McLeod diary: 17 Feb. 1876. Lockyer had earlier tried, unsuccessfully, to recruit him for an eclipse expedition; see 28 Dec. 1874, The Loans Exhibition opened with a conference at which Sir William Siemens gave the main address. Conference held in connection with the Special Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus 1876: Physics and mechanics (London, 1876).
127. See also, Greenaway Frank, “More than ‘a mere gazing place’: The Special Loans Exhibition of 1876”, in Anderson R. G. W., Bennett J. A., Ryan W. F. (eds), Making instruments count: Essays in historical instruments presented to Gerard L'Estrange Turner (Aldershot, 1993), 139–45.
128. Despite this, there was enormous interest in precision apparatus at this time. See, for example, Schaffer Simon, “Metrology, metrication and Victorian values”, in Lightman (ed.), Making instruments count: Essays in historical instruments presented to Gerard L'Estrange Turner (ref. 56), 438–74.
129. Sir Richard Strachey, FRS (1817–1908), had an illustrious career as a military engineer and administrator in India; he later became chairman of the council responsible for the running of the Meteorological Office. Lytton Strachey was one of his five sons.
130. McLeod diary: For Scientific Club see 4 Apr. 1875, and 5 Apr. and 5 July 1876. For more on the Savile see The Savile Club 1838–1923 (privately printed by the club, 1923).
131. At its founding, this club was intended for youngish men. Early members included Herbert Auberon, Smith Ezra Pye, Jenkin H. C. Fleeming, Williamson Alexander, Stephen Leslie, Morley John, Bryce James, Tyndall John, Clifford W. K., Bastien P. A. C., From its start the club had many scientists as members. When members came to dine they had to sit in the next empty space at one of the long refectory-type tables, and so meet and chat with whomever they found themselves next to. As McLeod's diary indicates, in order to sit with a chosen person, it was necessary to meet before entering the dining room.
132. McLeod diary: 30 Apr. 1879. The Pye Smith brothers gave many parties for scientists at their home in Harley Street. Philip Pye Smith, anatomist at Guy's hospital, and his brother Arthur, an engineer, were the sons of the physician Dr Ezra Pye Smith, and grandsons of the Rev. William Pye Smith, Congregationalist minister and principal of Homerton College. Unwin's father succeeded Pye Smith as principal. Sometimes the soirées brought so many people into London that McLeod was unable to stay at the rooms usually booked by the Savile Club. For example on 1 June 1881 he stayed overnight with Lockyer at his home in Earls Court.
133. McLeod diary: 16 June 1881. The following signed McLeod's papers: Frankland E., Gladstone J. H., Hofmann A. W., de la Rue W., Roscoe H. E., Abel F. A., Voelker A., Mills E. J., Maskelyne N. Story, Duncan P. M., Russell W. J., Crookes W., Stenhouse J., Gilbert J. H., Guthrie F., Müller H., Huggins W., Clifton R. B., The diary is interesting on McLeod's attempts to help his friend Unwin into the Royal Society. Though nominated, Unwin was disappointed for several years before being admitted only in 1886.
134. McLeod diary: 23 Nov. 1882. Typically McLeod recorded who he chatted with; on this occasion Scott R. H., de la Rue Warren, Gilbert J. H.,.
135. McLeod diary: 30 Nov. 1882.
136. McLeod diary, 31 Oct. 1877. McLeod Herbert, Clarke George Sydenham, “Experiments with telephone in connection with magneto-electric machine”, Nature, xviii (1878), 11.
137. One of the rare errors I have found in the diary has to do with this lecture. Ammonium cyanide is a solid. Wurtz actually demonstrated the liquefaction of cyanogen (a gas) produced by first heating mercuric cyanide. Wurtz A., “On the constitution of matter in the gaseous state”, Journal of the Chemical Society, xxxv (1879), 1–12.
138. In the early 1870s, McLeod, often in the company of other scientists, would seek out new electric lighting installations. If impressed, they would follow up with daytime inspections of the generators and lamps. McLeod diary: See, for example, 17 and 26 Apr. 1873.
139. Groves and Howard were both godfathers to McLeod's children — McLeod married and had five children in the years following 1885.
140. McLeod diary. See entries for 28 Oct., 21 Nov. and 19 Dec. 1872. The club was exclusive in that it began with a membership of only forty, but this was shortly increased to seventy (see 20 Nov. 1873). Attendance numbers at the dinners appear to have been between twenty and thirty. For more on this and other scientists' clubs see Gay Hannah, Gay John, “Brothers in science: Science and fraternal culture in nineteenth-century Britain”, History of science, xxxv (1997), 425–53.
141. McLeod diary: 11 Dec. 1884.
142. McLeod diary: 15 Feb. 1875 and 17 Feb. 1876.
143. McLeod diary: 10 and 14 Sept. and 26 Nov. 1873.
144. Lewis John L. (ed.), 125 Years: The Physical Society and the Institute of Physics (Bristol and Philadelphia, 1999), chap. 2.
145. Moseley R., “Tadpole and frogs: Some aspects of the professionalization of British physics, 1870–1939”, Social studies of science, vii (1977), 423–46.
146. Maxwell James Clerk opposed the formation of the new society. He had a dislike for Guthrie's way of doing physics and wished to see serious discussion of physics take place at the Royal Society.
147. Brock, Social studies of science (ref. 53).
148. See Bidwell Shelford, “Address by the President”, Proceedings of the Physical Society of London, 1898, 11–25.
149. McLeod diary: 23 Nov. 1878. In creating this new “art form”, Ayrton and Perry appear to have anticipated the lumière of the son et lumière shows, popular in the twentieth century.
150. Perry J., Ayrton W. E., “On the music of colour and visible motion” and “A new theory of terrestrial magnetism”, in Proceedings of the Physical Society of London, iii (1879), 18–28 and 57–68.
151. Bidwell, Proceedings of the Physical Society of London (ref. 126), 12.
152. McLeod diary: 22 May 1875. It is interesting that McLeod had very good relations with Spottiswoode despite the fact that the X Club, of which Spottiswoode was a member, may have been formed, in part, as a reaction to McLeod's earlier religious activities related to the Declaration. See Barton, Proceedings of the Physical Society of London (ref. 10, 1998), 437.
153. McLeod diary: 22–23 Mar. 1882. Gordon Taylor Bentinck Wigan translated and added to the popular electricians' handbook: Hospitalier E., The electricians pocket book (London, 1884).
154. McLeod records several occasions when he discussed telpherage with Fleeming Jenkin at the Savile Club; see, for example, McLeod diary: At breakfast on 24 Apr. 1884 and at dinner on 13 May 1885. On 14 May 1884, McLeod attended a lecture by Fleeming Jenkin on telpherage at the Royal Society of Arts, and the following day Eustace Balfour gave McLeod the proofs of the lecture to read. Balfour and Fleeming Jenkin wanted McLeod to join them in their business venture, but he refused. Fleeming Jenkin introduced the term ‘telpherage’ to describe all forms of electrically driven transportation. His system, which anticipated cable car technology, was designed to convey heavy goods at a slow pace along suspended wires; it was already installed carrying clay from mines to water transportation. The Telpherage Company was formed in 1883 to test a number of inventions including those of Fleeming Jenkin, William Ayrton and John Perry. See Jenkin H. C. Fleeming, “Telpherage”, Journal of the Society of Arts, xxxii (1884), 648–60.
155. Fleeming Jenkin died in 1885.
156. McLeod diary: 11 June 1882.
157. McLeod diary: For example, in Glencoe with A. W. Tilden after the 1876 Glasgow meeting, with Alex Herschel and Charles Groves in Switzerland, Sept. 1877, with Unwin in North Wales before the 1882 Southampton meeting, with Unwin and Greenhill in Snowdonia, Apr. 1884, and with Unwin and Gladstone in the Scottish highlands before the Aberdeen meeting in 1885. Mountain walking was a favoured activity of many scientists in this period. See, for example, Warwick, Journal of the Society of Arts (ref. 62), 216–17.
158. McLeod diary: 26 Aug. 1879. The Red Lion dinner was an annual event, founded by Edward Forbes at the Birmingham meeting in 1839. The dinners were convivial, jovial affairs. See Gay, Gay, Journal of the Society of Arts (ref. 119).
159. McLeod diary: See, for example, 17 Feb. 1872; present at dinner were McLeod, Lyon Playfair, Henry Roscoe, William Valentin, Henry Watts, Edmund Mills, George Carey Foster, Heinrich Debus, William Odling, and Thomas Archer Hirst.
160. McLeod diary: Wrangel lecture, 24 June; Gladstone party, 6–7 July 1876.
161. For an interesting account of an earlier expert manipulator, see Iliffe Rob, “Material doubts: Hooke, artisan culture and the exchange of information in 1670s London”, The British journal for the history of science, xxviii (1995), 285–318.
162. What Iliffe says of Hooke could well apply to McLeod two hundred years later, “[Hooke's] social identity epitomized the mechanically minded individual existing on the interface between gentlemen natural philosophers, instrument makers and skilled craftsmen” (p. 285). By McLeod's time the state and major industry had intersected this interface.
163. For example, the theoretical concerns of mathematical physicists centred on Cambridge. See Warwick, The British journal for the history of science (ref. 62), espec. chap. 5.
164. Scientists in many new educational institutions had to fight for research time since research was not necessarily expected of them. They were seen, rather, as professional teachers. This led to some tension, since those who wanted to be part of the cosmopolitan world of research were resentful of their heavy teaching loads. See Gay, The British journal for the history of science (ref. 20).
165. The Royal Society brought in rules making scientific excellence an essential criterion for admission, and thus changed gradually from a club to an academy during the 1870s and '80s. See Hall M. B., All scientists now (Cambridge, 1984).