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In memory of the Rev. William Cecil, M.A., sometime Fellow of Magdalene College and Fellow of the Cambridge Philosophical Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

G. Udny Yule
Affiliation:
St John's College

Extract

Engineering is not, as some are mistakenly apt to imagine, a comparatively recent introduction into Cambridge curricula. Professor William Farish, B.D. of Magdalene, Jacksonian Professor and our first President, contributed the first paper in Vol. I of our Transactions, “On Isometrical Perspective,” a method of which he appears to be the inventor. The reason for the invention he explains. He was evidently teaching engineering—or applied mechanics—so he wanted numerous models of machines and “would have found it difficult to procure a warehouse large enough to contain them.” So he obtained a number of interchangeable parts: loose brass wheels all gearing together, pulleys, axles, bars and frames from which different models could be built up, in fact he invented the forerunner of Meccano and all its competitors. His assistants needed drawings showing them how to assemble the parts for these different models, and he devised this very simple and readily comprehensible method for making such drawings.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge Philosophical Society 1931

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References

* 1759–1837; Professor of Chemistry, 1794; Jacksonian Professor, 1815; Rector of Little Stonham, Suffolk, 1836.

SirAiry, George Biddell, Autobiography, ed. by Wilfrid, Airy, Cambridge, 1896.Google Scholar

* The gas, petrol and oil engine, 2 vols., 19091913.Google Scholar

* Both the latter prefixed to the collected edition of his Works, second edition, 3 vols., 8vo., London, 1816 (in the University Library).

* Works, I, 95–6.

* A second copy also in a volume of theological tracts in Cockerell's Building.

Such behaviour in church does not seem to have been peculiar to Cambridge. The father, Richard Cecil, writes: “When I first came to Chobham, as I was sitting in the Vestry—on hearing the noise and uproar of the boys and the people in the gallery talking aloud to each other—I burst into tears” (Memoir in the Works, p. 38).

* Possibly the latter part of the Appeal was the foundation for “Hints on Confirmation; Dixon, Cambridge, 1833,” mentioned in Crockford (1860–), which I have not seen. The same work of reference also cites a “Visitation Sermon at Cambridge,” issued by the same publishers.

* The “Church Choir Organ Book” and the “Church Choir” are cited in the early Crockfords (1860–), but no dates of publication are given.