Abstract
THE friends of science throughout the country may be congratulated upon the fact that work in the laboratories of the Royal College of Science and of the City and Guilds Institute is not to be rendered impossible by the building of a railway along Exhibition Road. Sir John Kennaway, the chairman, and the members of the House of Commons Committee deserve the best thanks of the community for their unanimous rejection of the scheme even if only partly on scientific grounds. When the evidence given before the committee comes to be published there will be some curious reading. Lord Kelvin, the President of the Royal Society, informed the committee of what was at stake, and gave his opinion as to the question both of mechanical and electrical disturbance. The paid “scientific experts” in their pleading on the side of the company promoters may be said to have almost eclipsed the usual “emphasis” of statement. We may refer to this evidence later, but in the meantime the following quotation from a leader in the Times indicates the general opinion as to the importance of the result which has been achieved:— “What makes the history of this Bill novel and interesting is the second line of attack adopted by its opponents. On either side of Exhibition Road stand two of the most important scientific institutions in London. One of these—the Royal College of Science—is supported by the State; the other was founded by the City and Guilds of London for the promotion of advanced technical education. The former of these institutions, and the great collection of scientific instruments which is being formed at South Kensington, make an organised whole. This collection, which includes the earlier and the latest instruments, is invaluable both historically and practically; and is in close proximity to the lecture-halls and laboratories where use can be made of the instruments. The collection and the laboratories are used not only by many other students, but by the large number of national scholars and exhibitioners who, after the annual May examination of the Science and Art Department, are brought up from all parts of the country, chiefly at the public expense. These students, and the deserving lads who work at the City and Guilds Institute, form an important element in the situation; for to them the advent of an electrical railway was a serious peril. It was shown, and admitted, that the magnetic disturbances in the neighbourhood of the South London Railway are so great that no accurate magnetic work can be done within some hundreds of yards of it. Now the proposed Paddington and Clapham Railway would run, not some hundreds of yards from the South Kensington laboratories, but within forty feet of some of them; and there was a genuine fear on the part of the Professors that at such small distances it would be impossible not only to accurately neutralise the conflicting forces, but to prevent the astronomical instruments being affected by the earth-tremors caused by the passage of trains. This view was urged by Lord Kelvin, perhaps the greatest living authority on such matters, and by Profs. Norman Lockyer, Ayrton, Rücker, and Boys; and after a contest which lasted three days their view prevailed, and the committee found the preamble of the Bill ‘Not proved.’ The men of science are to be congratulated on the result. A year or more ago they successfully defended their South Kensington preserve against the invasion of Art; and it would he pitiful indeed if Science were now to be put in jeopardy by a practical application of herself. It appears that electricity cannot be studied in the neighbourhood of an electric railway; naturally, then, we cannot have an electric railway close to the great central institution where electrical science is taught at the public expense.”
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The South Kensington Laboratories and Railway. Nature 47, 494 (1893). https://doi.org/10.1038/047494a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/047494a0