| RefNo | MS/603/7/249 |
| Previous numbers | 1278 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Letter from O J L [Oliver Joseph Lodge], Whittingehame, Prestonkirk, N.B., to [Joseph] Larmor |
| Creator | Lodge; Sir Oliver Joseph (1851-1940); British physicist |
| Recipient | Larmor; Sir Joseph (1857-1942); Irish theoretical physicist |
| Date | 11 September 1904 |
| Description | Lodge has not been home since Cambridge. He has wanted to write to thank Larmor for putting him up and to convey to the Authority of town his thanks for hospitality. He wonders if he should write to anyone officially about it. Rayleigh is in Birmingham and still considering what Larmor meant by his query on single pulses as opposed to batallions going through a dispersed [?] medium. He cannot see Larmor's difficulty, thinking that Larmor is making an untenable distinction between a prism and a grating. He thinks it plain that both would put a periodicity into a single pulse. Lodge relays other comments from Rayleigh, including an analogy of periodicity by drawing a fishing line through water of blowing wind after it, so generating waves. Lodge thinks that Larmor's difficulty is with opacity, but Rayleigh won't catch on to that idea. Lodge considers Rayleigh may be right in believing that Larmor forgot about dispersion and velocity. He discusses a wave front, but without guarantee that there is any energy in it and so the construction is baseless, since it has no concern with the group velocity. Rayleigh thinks Larmor must have something deeper in mind and Lodge suggests that Larmor writes to him. |
| Extent | 12p. |
| Format | Manuscript |
| PhysicalDescription | Ink on paper |
| AccessStatus | Open |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA8070 | Lodge; Sir; Oliver Joseph (1851 - 1940); physicist | 1851 - 1940 |