Mr
Babbage, the third candidate, threatened legal proceedings, and Dr
French withdrew. The course was now open for Mr Babbage and me.
"In the meetings of the Philosophical Society a new mode of proceeding
was introduced this term. To enliven the meetings, private members
were requested to give oral lectures. Mine was the second, I think,
and I took for subject The Machinery of the Steam Engines in the
Cornish mines, and especially of the Pumping Engines and Pumps. It
made an excellent lecture: the subjects were at that time undescribed
in books, and unknown to engineers in general out of Cornwall.
"My College lectures seem to have been, Oct. 21st to Dec. 14th to 31
Junior Sophs, Dec. 4th to 12th to 12 Senior Sophs. I assisted at the
examinations of the Questionists. I had no private pupils. On
Nov. 26th I communicated to the Cambridge Philosophical Society a
Paper on the Theory of Pendulums, Balances, and Escapements: and I
find applications of Babbage's symbolism to an escapement which I
proposed. I have various investigations about the Earth, supposed to
project at middle latitudes above the elliptical form. In November an
account of the Dolcoath failure (by Whewell) was given to the Royal
Society.
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