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Letter to George F. Fitzgerald from A. Gray

Title

Letter to George F. Fitzgerald from A. Gray

Creator

Gray, A.

Date

1899

Identifier

GFF 9/37

Subject

Maxwell, James Clerk, 1831-1879.
University College of North Wales.
University of Glasgow.

Description

A handwritten letter from A. Gray to Professor G. F. Fitzgerald, dated August 7th 1899.

A. Gray thanks Professor Fitzgerald for his kind letter and strong support for his candidacy. He expresses uncertainty about the Glasgow electing body's decisions due to its mixed academic and non-academic composition. Gray shares a recent experiment with a radiometer in a magnetic field, noting that the vanes stopped spinning completely when exposed to the field. He wonders if this phenomenon has been previously observed.

4pp.

Transcription:

Dear Prof. Fitzgerald,

Many thanks for your very kind letter and testimonial which I received on Saturday. Your statement is all that I could desire, and I am very grateful for it.

The electing body at Glasgow is somewhat heterogeneous. The large majority of its members are city men, and though this, I must suppose, is a good thing, it renders their action a little difficult to predict. So far they seem to me, merely a little too exclusively purely academical in examinational honours.

I intensely dislike putting my friends to trouble, but if anything further comes in your way by private correspondence or otherwise to help me at this junction I will not be labour thrown away - unless they reject me.

I hope to be at Dover for a few days at lest, but it is just possible that I may be prevented. The meetings fits in badly with some of our College arrangements as regards Scholarship examinations.

On Saturday I managed to have an hour or two's work with the magnet. One observation which I made, and repeated I should think twenty-five or thirty

In succession, times, seems more interesting. I separated the pole faces sufficiently to admit a radiometer with the plan of rotation parallel to the field. The radiometer was driven by a burning taper placed about 14 inches off. A field of about 8000 or 9000 lines was then applied.

The spin immediate slowed down and stopped completely. The field in fact held the vanes at rest wit the taper at this distance. Of course the film of black in the vanes conduct and the induced current will retard the motion, but the complete stoppage cannot I seems to still always occur

he explained in this way. As soon as the current was shut off, the wheel started and ran as before. Reversing the current made no difference in the result.

I see no way at present of explaining this except by supposing that the radiation within the bulb is interfered with by the field.

Perhaps this has been noticed before, but I have not heard of it!

I am,
Yours very sincerely,
A, Gray






Source

RDS Library & Archives GFF collection of letters

Contributor

Fitzgerald, George Francis, 1851-1901

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

Text

Coverage

1870-1901

Collection

George Francis Fitzgerald Letters

Citation

Gray, A., “Letter to George F. Fitzgerald from A. Gray,” RDS Digital Archive, accessed July 18, 2025, https://digitalarchive.rds.ie/items/show/2351.

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