Several
tradesmen in Cambridge and London were well employed. On Feb. 13th I
have a letter from Cubitt about groins: I remember studying those of
the Custom-house and other places. On Feb. 20th my Syllabus of
Lectures was finished: this in subsequent years was greatly
improved. I applied to the Royal Society for the loan of Huyghens's
object-glass, but they declined to lend it. About this time I find
observations of the spectrum of Sirius.
"There had been no lectures on Experimental Philosophy (Mechanics,
Hydrostatics, Optics) for many years. The University in general, I
believe, looked with great satisfaction to my vigorous beginning:
still there was considerable difficulty about it. There was no
understood term for the Lectures: no understood hour of the day: no
understood lecture room. I began this year in the Lent Term, but in
all subsequent years I took the Easter Term, mainly for the chance of
sunlight for the optical experiments, which I soon made important. I
could get no room but a private or retiring room (not a regular
lecture room) in the buildings at the old Botanic Garden: in following
years I had the room under the University Library. The Lectures
commenced on some day in February 1827: I think that the number who
attended them was about 64.
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