An ancient ozone catastrophe?

Abstract

The University of Cambridge is one of the oldest seats of learning in the world and is, as befits such an august institution, steeped in tradition and history. One of the more curious traditions, which survived until 1909, was that of publicly ranking undergraduates who had taken the Mathematical Tripos, the oldest and most demanding examination of its kind. Candidates concluded 10 (now 9) semesters of intensive study by sitting a gruelling series of eight lengthy papers, each more difficult than the last, undertaken over a period of nine days. In rank order, the first 30–40 were called wranglers; the man gaining the highest marks of the year held the enviable position of Senior Wrangler. By tradition the positions were published in the London Times, with the accompanying list carrying pictures and short biographies of the top finishers; being a wrangler conveyed a certain degree of national honour and university distinction. Competition to become Senior Wrangler was intense. The examinations involved a test of knowledge, power of recall, concentration, and nerves, and a system of private coaching developed in response to the demands among the elite mathematicians to be Senior Wrangler. Coaches were often those who had previously placed well in the wrangler competition, with good ones able to teach essential mathematics and an ability to produce stock answers concisely so that as many problems as possible could be solved in the time available. The wrangler system evolved its own natural life cycle, ensuring its perpetuity, for a good coach could charge a tidy sum for seeing a student twice weekly over a year and usually had several candidates on his books. A certain William Hopkins was a superlative tutor who had, by 1849, coached 17 Senior Wranglers and 44 top three places. Wranglers in the top few places had the opportunity to take up a pleasant college fellowship or work as a coach fashioning a career to produce more wranglers. Women in the days of Victorian and Edwardian Cambridge were not awarded a degree but were, from 1870 onwards, permitted to sit the Tripos examination.