Another expression of his views on the position of Physics at the time will be found in his address to Section A of the British Association, when President at the Liverpool meeting of 1870.
CHAPTER VI.
CAMBRIDGE—THE CAVENDISH LABORATORY.
But the laboratory was not yet built. A Syndicate, of which Maxwell was a member, was appointed to consider the question of a site, to take professional advice, and to obtain plans and estimates. Professor Maxwell and Mr. Trotter visited various laboratories at home and abroad for the purpose of ascertaining the best arrangements. Mr. W. M. Fawcett was appointed architect; the tender of Mr. John Loveday, of Kebworth, for the building at a cost of £8,450, exclusive of gas, water, and heating, was accepted in March, 1872, and the building[38] was begun during the summer.
In the meantime Maxwell began to lecture, finding a home where he could.
“Lectures begin 24th,” he writes from Glenlair, October 19th, 1872. “Laboratory rising, I hear, but I have no place to erect my chair, but move about like the cuckoo, depositing my notions in the Chemical Lecture-room 1st term; in the Botanical in Lent, and in Comparative Anatomy in Easter.”
It was not till June, 1874, that the building was complete, and on the 16th the Chancellor formally presented his gift of the Cavendish Laboratory to the University. In the correspondence previous to this time it was spoken of as the Devonshire Laboratory. The name Cavendish commemorated the work of the great physicist of a century earlier, whose writings Maxwell was shortly to edit, as well as the generosity of the Chancellor.
In their letter of thanks to the Duke of Devonshire the University write:—
“Unde vero conventius poterat illis artibus succurri quam e tua domo quæ in ipsis jam pridem inclaruerat. Notum est Henricum Cavendish quem secutus est Coulombius primum ita docuisse, quæ sit vis electrica ut eam numerorum modulis illustraret; adhibitis rationibus quas hodie veras esse constat.” And they suggest the name as suitable for the building. To this the Chancellor replied, after referring to the work of Henry Cavendish: “Quod pono in officinâ ipsâ nuncupandâ nomen ejus commemorare dignati sitis, id grato animo accepi.”
The building had cost far more than the original estimate, but the Chancellor’s generosity was not limited, and on July 21st, 1874, he wrote to the Vice-Chancellor:—