Lord Kelvin Finds Fine Welcome Here

Throng in Columbia to Hear the Famous Scientist.

VIEW OF ELECTRICITY'S FUTURE

Great Cheering for Edison When "the Wizard's" Name Is Mentioned by the Speaker.

There was a noteworthy gathering of men prominent in the scientific world last night in Columbia University at a reception for Lord and Lady Kelvin. The large hall adjoining the gymnasium was decorated handsomely with Columbia's colors and was filled with men and women who had come to honor Lord Kelvin for what he had done in the interests of science. In the throng were Thomas A. Edison and Nikola Tesla.

Dr. Francis Bacon Crocker, who presided, Introduced Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, who said he was proud to have Columbia share with representatives of leading societies the honor of welcoming a guest who had been proved a master of science.

“It is one of the eminent distinctions of our guest,” he said, “that he has made himself understood. Lord Kelvin has not only gone to the outskirts of the Unknown, but he has come back with tales of what he has done.”

Professor Elihu Thomson of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers said that he regarded Lord Kelvin as the father of electrical engineering, and that all the great progress in this science for the last thirty-five years had its start in mathematical calculation. Lord Kelvin had charge of the original work of this kind, the commercial value of which was without estimation.

KELVIN'S WORK ON CABLE.

Professor Thomson then spoke of the laying of the Atlantic cable. He said Lord Kelvin was responsible for the insertion of a little piece of zinc in the cable which increased the electrical pressure and took pulsations of the lightest character. The inventor followed this with the syphon recorder, which records the message in ink.

“In those thirty-five years,” said Thomson, “Lord Kelvin never has been idle. He always has been adding to our equipment. It is peculiarly fitting that the Electrical Society should have him with them on this occasion, when it seems we are going to have transmission across the Atlantic of a different character than that now in vogue in the shape of wireless telegraphy. But I believe that the cable for years, and maybe for all time, will hold its position.”

Dr. Arthur Gordon Webster, vice president of the American Physical Society, called Lord Kelvin “the link between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.”

CHEERS FOR THE VISITOR.

Lord Kelvin then was introduced, and as the white-bearded old man stood up there were enthusiastic cheers. He wore one decoration, the Star of the Victorian Order. His voice was so low that many did not hear him at all. He spoke of the “alliance of the divine, physical and philosophical questions.”

“The great beauties of nature and the wonder works of the world opened to the scientific man,” said he, “are an absolute refutation of the arguments of atheism.”

He told of the work of laying the Atlantic cable, and said it was Cyrus Field’s indefatigableness that pushed the thing through.

“My visit here in 1884 was remarkable to me,” said he, “as I then first saw the great electric light, the astonishing work of Thomas Edison.”

At those words there was great cheering for Edison — in fact, he received a much warmer welcome than even Lord Kelvin, and the latter scientist looked around, as he heard the plaudits, to see the American inventor. Edison was away back in a corner, but the applause was so persistent that at last he had to arise and bow. The cheers then broke out anew.

WHERE THIS COUNTRY LEADS.

Lord Kelvin said that the greatest development of the transmission of electrical power had taken place in the United States.

“It has been so great, so marvelous,” said he, “that I hope to live to see the day when a dream I have had may come true. I fervently hope to see the day when we shall have the transmission of electric power over 300 miles with a voltage of 40,000.”

After his speech everybody pressed forward to shake his hand and to greet Lady Kelvin, who stood by his side.

In the gathering were Charles P. Steinmetz, Ralph W. Pope and George A. Hamilton of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers; Professor Asaph Hall, Leland O. Howard, Daniel T. McDougall and Robert Simpson Woodward of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; Professor Albert A. Michaelson, Ernest Merritt, Dr. C. Hallock, Eliakim H. Moore, Francis N. Cole, Professor Simon Newcomb, George Cary Comstock, Charles L. Doolittle, James McKean Cattell, Dr. Henry F. Crampton and Charles Fox.