Ret. doc. Maxwell
 
Chronologie tlc
Chronologie télégraphes
Chronologie téléphone
Chronologie radio
Chronologie TV
Chronologie composants
 
Index  Scientiphiques
Bibliographies
Glossaire

 
James Clerk Maxwell
     
 
DOCUMENTS
 
Lettera al Professor W. Thomson
16 settembre  1850
 
Professor W. Thomson
  
Glenlair, 16th September 1850.

 

Professor W. Thomson has asked me to make him some magne-crystallic preparations which I am now busy   with. Now, in some of these bismuth is required, which is not to be found either in Castle-Douglas or Dumfries. I   have, therefore, thought fit to request you, and do now request  you, during your transit through Edinburgh   on your way here, to go either to Mr. Kemp's establishment in Infirmary Street, beside the College, or to some other dealer in metals, and there purchase and obtain two ounces of metallic bismuth (called Regulus of Bismuth),
either powder or lumpish—all one. Thus you may perceive that the end of this letter is in two ounces of Regulus of Bismuth, that is, the metal bismuth, which if you do bring it with you, will please me well. Not that I am turned  chemist. By no means; but common cook. My fingers are abominable with glue and chalk, gum and flour, wax and   rosin, pitch and tallow, black oxide of iron, red ditto and vinegar. By combining these ingredients, I strive to please  Prof. Thomson, who intends to submit them to Tyndall and Knoblauch, who, by means of them, are to discover
the secrets of nature, and the origin of the magne-crystallic forces.

Now, if by coming here you could turn me from a cook to a grammarian by an irresistible influence you would do    well; but if you remember the way I used to translate at the Academy, distorting the Latin of Livy to mean what I   had preconceived, you will understand that at first I had not only to find out what the author meant, but to become  convinced that it could not be what I thought it was.

John Wilson's lectures on Moral Philosophy do not improve on reconsideration; they become indistinct and are   resolved into the excellence of happiness, the acquiredness of conscience, and general good-humour, philanthropy  and . Here is an outline of Abstract Mor. Phil.:—

1. The principles of the growth of the mind (that is, the acquisition of opinions, propensities, and abilities).

2. The principles of government (the governor suits his actions to the laws of the thing governed).

3. The principle of sympathy (sauce for goose is sauce for gander).

Out of these heads may one make something?   As it is bed-time, and I have to put the glue and oxide of iron into shape to-night, I must stop here, and remain in  hope of seeing you soon (say when).