John William Strutt, third Baron
Rayleigh, was born on November 12, 1842 at Langford Grove,
Maldon, Essex, as the son of John James Strutt, second Baron, and
his wife Clara Elizabeth La Touche, eldest daughter of Captain
Richard Vicars, R. E. He was one of the very few members of
higher nobility who won fame as an outstanding scientist.
Throughout his infancy and youth he was of frail physique; his
education was repeatedly interrupted by ill-health, and his
prospects of attaining maturity appeared precarious. After a
short spell at Eton at the age of 10, mainly spent in the school
sanatorium, three years in a private school at Wimbledon, and
another short stay at Harrow, he finally spent four years with
the Rev. George Townsend Warner (1857) who took pupils at
Torquay.
In 1861 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where he commenced reading
mathematics, not at first equal in attainments to the best of his
contemporaries, but his exceptional abilities soon enabled him to
overtake his competitors. He graduated in the Mathematical Tripos
in 1865 as Senior Wrangler and Smith's Prizeman. In 1866 he
obtained a fellowship at Trinity which he held until 1871, the
year of his marriage.
A severe attack of rheumatic fever in 1872 made him spend the
winter in Egypt and Greece. Shortly after his return his father
died (1873) and he succeeded to the barony, taking up residence
in the family seat, Terling Place, at Witham, Essex. He now found
himself compelled to devote part of his time to the management of
his estates (7000 acres). The combination of general scientific
knowledge and acumen with acquired knowledge of agriculture made
his practice in estate management in many respects in advance of
his time. Nevertheless, in 1876 he left the entire management of
the land to his younger brother.
From then on, he could devote his full time to science again. In
1879 he was appointed to follow James Clerk Maxwell as Professor
of Experimental Physics and Head of the Cavendish
Laboratory at Cambridge. In 1884 he left Cambridge to
continue his experimental work at his country seat at Terling,
Essex, and from 1887 to 1905 he was Professor of Natural
Philosophy in the Royal Institution of Great Britain, being successor
of Tyndall.
He served for six years as President of a Government Committee on
Explosives, and from 1896 to 1919 he was Scientific Advisor to
Trinity House. He was Lord Lieutenant of Essex from 1892 to
1901.
Lord Rayleigh's first researches were mainly mathematical,
concerning optics and vibrating systems, but his later work
ranged over almost the whole field of physics, covering sound,
wave theory, colour vision, electrodynamics, electromagnetism,
light scattering, flow of liquids, hydrodynamics, density of
gases, viscosity, capillarity, elasticity, and photography. His
patient and delicate experiments led to the establishment of the
standards of resistance, current, and electromotive force; and
his later work was concentrated on electric and magnetic
problems. Lord Rayleigh was an excellent instructor and, under
his active supervision, a system of practical instruction in
experimental physics was devised at Cambridge, developing from a
class of five or six students to an advanced school of some
seventy experimental physicists. His Theory of Sound was
published in two volumes during 1877-1878, and his other
extensive studies are reported in his Scientific Papers -
six volumes issued during 1889-1920. He has also contributed to
the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
He had a fine sense of literary style; every paper he wrote, even
on the most abstruse subject, is a model of clearness and
simplicity of diction. The 446 papers reprinted in his collected
works clearly show his capacity for understanding everything just
a little more deeply than anyone else. Although a member of the
House of Lords, he intervened in debate only on rare occasions,
never allowing politics to interfere with science. His
recreations were travel, tennis, photography and music.
Lord Rayleigh, a former Chancellor of Cambridge University, was a
Justice of the Peace and the recipient of honorary science and
law degrees. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society
(1873) and served as Secretary from 1885 to 1896, and as
President from 1905 to 1908. He was an original recipient of the
Order of Merit (1902), and in 1905 he was made a Privy
Councillor. He was awarded the Copley, Royal, and Rumford Medals
of the Royal Society, and the Nobel
Prize for 1904.
In 1871 he married Evelyn, sister of the future prime minister,
the Earl of Balfour, and daughter of James Maitland Balfour and
his wife Blanche, the daughter of the second Marquis of
Salisbury. They had three sons, the eldest of whom was to become
Professor of Physics at Imperial College of Science and Technology,
London.
Lord Rayleigh died on June 30, 1919, at Witham, Essex.
From Nobel Lectures, Physics 1901-1921, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1967
This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.
Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1904
Lord Rayleigh
