[Letter to George F. FitzGerald from Thomas R. Lyle].
Title
[Letter to George F. FitzGerald from Thomas R. Lyle].
Creator
Identifier
GFF 20/9
Description
Handwritten letter from Thomas R. Lyle, The University of Melbourne, to George F. Fitzgerald, dated 14 September, with no year listed. 2pp.
Transcription:
My dear Mr. Fitzgerald,
I ought to have written you a time long ago to let you know I have started my new work. I have been very busy these last six weeks and will be so until the end of term 2 weeks hence.
This is a very much bigger place than I expected and is likely to grow very fast. My laboratory is not really finished yet indeed only the walls of half of it are up but when it has been completed it will be a very fine place. I think I have...
...rather difficult place to go into when I came out. Everything was in disorder and upside down. My work is going vert smoothly with me now. The students are very attentive and hard working and haven't given me the least trouble.
The 1st year class has 135 in it 13 of whom are young ladies. I take the 1st year Ordinary and the 2nd and 3rd year Honour classes and have some very able men in the 3rd year.
The appliances for teaching my subject at present are miserable. I have had to exercise my wits very often to get up some model or experiment and have learned a great deal already about how to make...
...I will have a very fine lecture room in the new place and am trying yo have the lecture bench as complete as possible. Everything at had. Gas, oxygen, steam, electricity from storage cells. Two water air pumpers which in a minute give a vacuum of 28 or 29 inches. Sunlight (we nearly always have it here) from the [?] along the table from one end and an electric lamp at the other. Lamp for projection somewhere in front and a solid [?] pedestal near the corner for Galvanometer and a Electrometer.
The table itself will be of slate laid on a solid masonry and directly over it at the ceiling I have a beam for suspending things from.
I am going to ask for...
...of the Lab now. and have it completed at once. If you have any suggestions I will feel very grateful if you write me.
I would like to know where I could find all that has been written about Hertz's work & what you were lecturing on before I left. There is a good library here and they get most of the periodicals.
If you would tell my brother Robert or else Russell of any new books that I hought to have I will also feel very much obliged.
With kind regards
[?]
Yours very sincerely
Thomas R. Lyle
Transcription:
My dear Mr. Fitzgerald,
I ought to have written you a time long ago to let you know I have started my new work. I have been very busy these last six weeks and will be so until the end of term 2 weeks hence.
This is a very much bigger place than I expected and is likely to grow very fast. My laboratory is not really finished yet indeed only the walls of half of it are up but when it has been completed it will be a very fine place. I think I have...
...rather difficult place to go into when I came out. Everything was in disorder and upside down. My work is going vert smoothly with me now. The students are very attentive and hard working and haven't given me the least trouble.
The 1st year class has 135 in it 13 of whom are young ladies. I take the 1st year Ordinary and the 2nd and 3rd year Honour classes and have some very able men in the 3rd year.
The appliances for teaching my subject at present are miserable. I have had to exercise my wits very often to get up some model or experiment and have learned a great deal already about how to make...
...I will have a very fine lecture room in the new place and am trying yo have the lecture bench as complete as possible. Everything at had. Gas, oxygen, steam, electricity from storage cells. Two water air pumpers which in a minute give a vacuum of 28 or 29 inches. Sunlight (we nearly always have it here) from the [?] along the table from one end and an electric lamp at the other. Lamp for projection somewhere in front and a solid [?] pedestal near the corner for Galvanometer and a Electrometer.
The table itself will be of slate laid on a solid masonry and directly over it at the ceiling I have a beam for suspending things from.
I am going to ask for...
...of the Lab now. and have it completed at once. If you have any suggestions I will feel very grateful if you write me.
I would like to know where I could find all that has been written about Hertz's work & what you were lecturing on before I left. There is a good library here and they get most of the periodicals.
If you would tell my brother Robert or else Russell of any new books that I hought to have I will also feel very much obliged.
With kind regards
[?]
Yours very sincerely
Thomas R. Lyle
Source
RDS Library & Archives GFF collection of letters
Contributor
Rights
Copyright RDS Library & Archives. Publication, transmission or display is prohibited without formal written approval of the RDS Library & Archives.
Relation
RDS Science Archive
Format
Manuscript
Language
English
Type
Coverage
1870-1901
Collection
Citation
Lyle, Thomas R. 1860-1944, “[Letter to George F. FitzGerald from Thomas R. Lyle].,” RDS Digital Archive, accessed December 5, 2025, https://digitalarchive.rds.ie/items/show/1397.