Abstract
IN the same address Lord Rayleigh claims that beginners in research also should be "graduates in the school of string and sealing wax". Faraday, and Maxwell in such constructions in the Cavendish Laboratory as his model of the thermodynamic surface, are each quoted as examples. Sir Charles Parsons, the greatest mechanical engineer of his generation, was able to deal with formidable problems of large-scale construction, yet he found paper, sealing wax, wire and steel knitting needles very adequate materials for making a working model of his air turbine. When the late Lord Rayleigh had occasion to set up a pair of mirrors for Fresnel's interference experiment he mounted them in a few minutes on two lumps of soft wax. The amateur method is not only much cheaper but also often takes little more time than the dispatch of an order to the instrument maker. Progress, too, can be made while the mind is red-hot upon the project, before delay has cooled enthusiasm. Little sympathy is shown for the research worker who puts the responsibility for designing his apparatus upon a firm of instrument makers. Lord Rutherford is quoted as saying that, if necessary, he could carry out research at the North Pole. J. C. McConnel, who was compelled for health reasons to winter in Switzerland out of reach of laboratories or facilities of any kind, still made important observations on the crystallization of ice, noting in particular how large were the individual crystals and how they behaved under bending forces when single crystal rods were cut in various directions. Lord Rayleigh paid a tribute to the instrument making industry and its part in practical life and non-pioneering research.
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Simple Apparatus in Physics Research. Nature 154, 392–393 (1944). https://doi.org/10.1038/154392c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/154392c0