I might bring forward
instances gathered from every branch of science, shewing how the
labour of careful measurement has been rewarded by the discovery of
new fields of research, and by the development of new scientific
ideas. But the history of the science of terrestrial magnetism
affords us a sufficient example of what may be done by Experiments in
Concert, such as we hope some day to perform in our Laboratory.
That celebrated traveller, Humboldt, was profoundly impressed with the
scientific value of a combined effort to be made by the observers of
all nations, to obtain accurate measurements of the magnetism of the
earth; and we owe it mainly to his enthusiasm for science, his great
reputation and his wide-spread influence, that not only private men of
science, but the governments of most of the civilised nations, our own
among the number, were induced to take part in the enterprise. But
the actual working out of the scheme, and the arrangements by which
the labours of the observers were so directed as to obtain the best
results, we owe to the great mathematician Gauss, working along with
Weber, the future founder of the science of electro-magnetic
measurement, in the magnetic observatory of Gottingen, and aided by
the skill of the instrument-maker Leyser.
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