|-Sif^vfer:--i^odge,:f:: i ■■ * D-ScT:LLD, F.R.S. ■ -^

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12765, 17 June 1911, Page 10 (Supplement)

|-Sif^vfer:--i^odge,:f:: i ■■ * D-ScT:LLD, F.R.S. ■ -^

(!£ PRINCIPAL OF THE UNIVERSITY OP^-BIRMINGHAM. 4p

Sir Oliver Lodge was barn on June 12, 1851, at Penkhull, near Trent. At the age of eight he went to' the Newport. Grammar. School, and at fourteen he was taken into" business to help his father, who was in failing health, But his love of -.sciencev ; was developing, and, working in'-tlie.even-ings, ho prepared-himself: for,the mat-, riculation of the "University of London, und for the Intermediate Examination in. Science, taking first-class honours in Physics. In 1872 he gave up the idea of a business career, and went to University College, London, to pursue mathematical and other scientific itudies. In 1877 he took- the degree ot Doctor, of Science, in the subject of Electricity,:- and became -Demonstrator and subsequently Assistant-Profes-,sor of Physics in "University College, London. In 1831 he was elected first Professor of Physics at Liverpool in the -newly-founded University College, 'imvr the University of Liverpool. In 1887 ho was made a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1888 -he received the honorary degree of LL.D. from tho University of St. Andrews, the first of an ever-increasing list of such distinctions, and-later be has been made a ctiresponding member of several foreign learned societies. In 19C0 he was chosen by tlie Crown as the-first Principal of the University of Birmingham, and in 1902 he received the honour of knighthood on the Coronation of King Edward.

The scientific work for •which Sir Oliver is most famous is a long series of researches on the discharge of. electricity, and accompanying phenomena. Starting with an investigation into the behaviour of lightning and into the best m-.»'\iod of guarding against it, he was le?. >o make experiments with lightning on a minute scale as manifested in the, spark of electric machines, and thencq to the surging or oscillating character of the dischargs along wires.in which he obtained many new and interesting results. We know now, that Lcd'7,e was really dealing hi these experiments witfh the electro-magnetic wavos in air discovered by Heitz in 1838, and there can be no doubt that if Hertz had not made the discovery we shoull very coon have learned it from Lodge—as Hertz himself says,

plicable by any experimentally-estab-lished theory of telepathy, and he gradually adopted f.he working hypothesis that some communications may veritably bo partly duo to the agency of a disembodied mind From the beginning of his researches—followed tip by his sittings with Eusapia and other nediums—Sir Oliver was in close touch with the Society for Psychical Research, and in the years ] 901-3 he occupied tha Presidential chair. For many years-Mr. Myers was perhaps his most intimate friend, md readers will remember-his eloquen*. and entirely fittine tribute to the departed leader, in '•'Proceedings," XVJI. and in "Tho Survival of man," p. 341. In this connection it is perhaps worth while to contradict a' statement which gsvnsd seme currency recently. Mr. Edward Clodd, apparently repeating some irresponsible gossip, asserted or implied tiiat Sir Oliver Lodge's convictions had followed his desires; that ho wanted to believe in immortality nncl was therefore easily convinced by quite inadequate evidence. Mr. Clodd was in error. Sir Oliver never had the intense longing which was such a characteristic of Myers; at the time of his introduction to the subject be was immersed in the R fudy of electric waves, and. so far as he thought T.bont survival at all. he. thought that nothing i:;mld be proved either way, nnd was willing to leave it at that—"content to wait." as he says, "without anxirtv, for whatever destiny the future had in store." It, w'is only gradually, as 113 o')ta'ned first-hand Vsneri'-'no of psvchieal phenomena, that ho began to r.rrivft at conclusion's. It is surprising bow readily the self-styled rationalist can decido all these- questions, without

"Electric Waves," p. 3

In the earliest years, of investigation of electro-magnetic /waves, Lodge was indefatigable in devising modes of creating and detecting waves, investigating ; their properties, . writing papers, giving lectures, and stimulating other minds to the research. Among his most brilliant discoveries was that of the "coherer" for detecting the waves. With this detector he devised the first practical wireless telegraph, sending signals over a distance of several hundred yards. This was all pioneer work, done before Marconi took up the subject ; and Marconi undoubtedly built upon the foundation which Lodie had laid

Other interesting researches were those on the passage of electricity ■through liquids, Lod^e being the. first to devise an experiment for simply and directly manifesting the travel ofthe sundered molecules' or ions, and : on the passage of light .through a moving medium. For this latter, and for his research on electric waves, he received in 1898 the Rumford Medal of the. Royal Society, one of the, highest honours ihe Society can bestow, for it is ponPned to our own countrymen. Sir Oliver's Presidential Address to Section A of the British Association in 1891 must not pass unnoticed. In ib ho advocated the foundation of a National Physical Observatory, and so started the movement which led, somo years later, to the establishment of a National Physical Laboratory, at Busheyj supported, though inadequately, by the Government, and controlled largely by the learned societies. In regard.-to psychical matters, Sir Oliver's interest dates back to the earl.v seventies, when--ho became acquainted with Edmund Guraey, who was attending his lectures on Physics, and who introduced him to F. W. H. Myers. But it was not linti! 1884 that he boenmo convinced of the reality of telobathy, as a result of experiments witli Mr. Guthrie f described in "Proceedin Cs? 1 S.P.Pv It. p. 189, and "Survival of Man," p. 39), and it iwas not until IRS9 that the eyiileneo for survival made any serious impressions upon him, About- that timu his experiences with Mrs, Piper drove him to the conclusion .that tha phenomena were not ex-

any knowledge whatever of. the alleged tacts—spinning his belief or non-belief out of his own inner-consciousness^ike the mystic whom he abominates— and how confidently he attributes bias to thosa who have given real scientific study to tho matter. ! It'wonW bo impertinent On the current sense of the word) to label Sir Oliver Lodge with any of the pat lAil'JFophical terms. Such classifications i-ie rarely satisfactory; and, in the easo of one who seeks scientific tr«*ji rather than any closed system. of philosophy, thnyrro perhaps not applicable. J3ut it may -be permissible to regard bir Oliver Tod"o~as tlio exponent of a sane and batonctwl mysticism. Rigorous in l.is upholding" of strict scientific n.pthocL bonnule-sV optimistic in his vision of tho ptrsihilities-of knowledge and its useful application fos m electrification of crops, dissipation of fog, control of tlio weather) he is still, able to look below the surface of the phenomenal, and to jTecogniso spiritual ■'factors' as the more real things—to recognise, that. .the. seen things are tern tlio unsem. things eternal. He believes, m scientific evidence, in the survival of human personality past tho crisis of bodiiv health; in progress m-u--»ftnitolv continued towards a goal unthinkably remote; and he postulates the essential so.t'ii?ss of the Cosines, tl-o universe existinc hospitably for the weal of souls. He is thus both scientific and religious, avoiding on the one hand th? narrow dogmatism of materia'ism, and on the other hand tho er.imllv obir>.-»tmnab!e dogmatism of a tht"->lnrrv which modern science has discredits.—J. Aithur Hill, in tho "Occnlt Review."