THERE is a certain appropriateness in ‘Engines’ as a subject for Christmas lectures at the Royal Institution. Most engines are machines for converting heat into work, and the first man to show experimentally the connexion between heat and work was Count Rumford, who founded the Institution in 1799. The original purpose of the Institution was “for diffusing the knowledge, and facilitating the general introduction of useful mechanical inventions and improvements; and for teaching by courses of philosophical lectures and experiments the applications of science to the common purposes of life.” A course of lectures on engines certainly complies closely with this plan. While if it be urged that a physicist trained to occupy himself with vibrations and atoms should not meddle with things outside the usual scope of his studies, the physicist may, perhaps, without exposing himself to the absurd charge of arrogantly claiming kinship with so great a philosopher, point out that Thomas Young lectured at the Royal Institution on architecture and carpentry, on machinery, on hydraulics, and on what he called pneumatic machines, which included Newcomen's and Watt's engines, and the locomotive. In more recent times the present distinguished Fullerian professor of chemistry has lectured on trades. Precedent, then, is not lacking for the choice of so mechanic (using the word in the Shakespearian sense) a subject by a physicist.
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Jan 1, 1964
Kenzo Fukada 
Open Access
