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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    Again, on another occasion (May 8th, 1913):— Chief Gas Examiner: I do not think I shall decide before I am actually called on to do so whether Good Friday is a Sunday or not. In 1901 the Central London Tube railway was newly opened and trouble arose from vibration caused in the houses below which it passed. The complaints of the householders were loud ; and the Board of Trade appointed a committee to see what could be done. Rayleigh was the chairman, and Sir John Wolfe Barry and Prof. J. A. Ewing were the other members. As soon as they began to consider the question, they were unfavourably impressed with the design of the electric loco¬ motives. The heavy armatures of the motors were not spring-borne, but were on the axles of the road wheels. The field magnets were also of course in a definite position relative to them. In this way some simplicity of construction was gained, but at a heavy cost in respect of smooth running. The load carried without springs by each wheel was no less than 4 tons. The rails were not perfectly straight, since they usually come curved from the rolling mills, and have to be corrected by local bending. This is bound to produce waviness, and the conveyance of the heavy armatures over this without any easing by springs would readily account for the vibration. Pending the construction of a new trial locomotive in which this defect would be remedied, the only thing that could be done was to determine whether individual locomotives were specially bad. Tests were made by the Committee with the assistance of a number of other observers, including the present writer. The individual locomotives were timed at a station and the vibrations in the houses above were also timed and their intensity estimated. There was no definite indication that one locomotive was worse than another. Mr. Arnulf Mallock was employed to experiment for the Committee, and devised an ingenious vibration recorder, by which he obtained records of the vibrations in the tunnels