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Cavendish Laboratory : Maxwell's poem 'To the Chief Musician upon Nabla: A Tyndallic Ode'

Cavendish Laboratory

<p style='text-align: justify;'>The poem was first published anonymously in Nature in 1871. Its title refers to Peter Guthrie Tait, who first described fully the mathematical properites of the 'nabla' symbol. The text is a critique of John Tyndall's sensationalist approach to science. At the top of the manuscript is a Hebrew translation of the title. The dp/dt symbol is Maxwell's signature, standing JCM in his preferred electromagnetic notation. The poem is included in Campbell and Garnett's Life of James Clerk Maxwell. This photograph of the manuscript was probably taken on the occasion of the Maxwell Centenary Celebration in 1931.</p>

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