Lot 259: STRUTT, John William, Third Baron Rayleigh (1842-1919). Autograph letter signed ("Rayleigh") to [Friedrich Ernst Dorn], Witham, 4 March 1893. 7+ pages, 12 o, with a near-contemporary manuscript transcription.

THE DISCOVERER OF ARGON DISCUSSES DETAILS OF HIS OWN WORK AND THAT OF MAXWELL, LORENTZ AND GLAZEBROOK Dorn had just sent Rayleigh a copy of his Vorschl„ge zu gesetzlichen Bestimmung ber electrischen Masseinheiten, which had reviewed Rayleigh's researches. "I certainly have no reason to complain of the way in which you have treated my work, but there are one or two points on wh. I sd. like to make a few remarks." Rayleigh discusses the correction ar for the end of a Hg tube, as well as the effect of iron in the disc of Lorentz's method. "You may be pleased to hear that I would admit some such correction as you introduced for the imperfect cooling to 0x of the ends of my Hg tubes, but I can not understand why there should be so great a difference between my number & Glazebrook's. I have been through all the calculation recently, without finding any clue." Rayleigh is best remembered for his discovery of argon gas (1894-95), for which he received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1904.