John William Strutt, third baron Rayleigh, O.M., F.R.S., sometime president of the Royal society and chancellor of the University of Cambridge / by his son Robert John Strutt, fourth baron Rayleigh.

  • Rayleigh, Robert John Strutt, Baron, 1875-1947.
Date:
1924
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: John William Strutt, third baron Rayleigh, O.M., F.R.S., sometime president of the Royal society and chancellor of the University of Cambridge / by his son Robert John Strutt, fourth baron Rayleigh. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    CHAPTER XVI RECREATION AND MORE PUBLIC WORK In 1897 Rayleigh had the feeling of staleness over his scien¬ tific work which showed the need for a holiday, and he decided to take the only opportunity which was likely to occur in his lifetime to see a total eclipse of the sun, visible near Poonah in India early in 1898. After paying one or two farewell visits, he sailed on October 22nd on the S.S. Arcadia for Colombo. Lady Rayleigh joined him at Brindisi. At Colombo they were the guests of the Governor, Sir West Ridgway, and his wife. I think it was there that some of the Governor’s Staff had been puzzling themselves over a simple conundrum which they thought should easily admit of algebraical solution, but the solution they got did not seem to fit, and they brought the question to Ra3deigh. Before they had propounded it he told them that they had doubtless taken the wrong root of a quadratic equation. It proved to be so. “ How in the world could you guess that ? ” they said. However, apart from trifling incidents of this kind, he wished to get away from his usual pursuits, and this proved easy enough, because hardly anyone he met in India or Ceylon seemed to know or care anything about them. He found that he was received with a good deal of respect as a peer, but the people he met seemed to know nothing about him in connec¬ tion with science. From Colombo they started on November 18th, 1897, for Candy, and thence they went to Newara Elia. They returned to Candy and on to Mat ale, where they slept at a Government rest-house and continued the journey by coach to Damboul and