Rayleigh

Rayleigh, LORD, physicist. John William Strutt, third Baron Rayleigh, was born 12th November 1842, studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was the senior wrangler (1865), Smith's prizeman, and fellow of his college (1866). He was professor of Experimental Physics at Cambridge from 1879 to 1884; in 1888 succeeded Tyndall as professor of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institution; and is D.C.L., LL.D., and F.R.S. He has contributed much to the scientific periodicals, edited Clerk-Maxwell's Heat, and is author of The Theory of Sound (1877-78). In 1894, with Professor Ramsay, he separated from atmospheric nitrogen the new gas argon—hitherto undetected, but constituting about 1 per cent. of the atmosphere.