Cavendish Laboratory : Maxwell's poem 'Report on Tait's Lecture on Force', 1876

Cavendish Laboratory

<p style='text-align: justify;'>On 8 September 1876 P.G. Tait delivered a lecture on Force to the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS), which was reprinted later that year in the second edition of 'Lectures on Recent Advances in Physical Science'. He strongly criticised the ambiguous use of the word 'Force' in popular lectures, especially those given by John Tyndall, and he receives credit for this in Maxwell's poem. (See: D. Brown, 'The poetry of Victorian Scientists', p.115-121). Included in Campbell and Garnet'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>