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281
Heroes of the Telegraph
·
John Munro
145
In
the
beginning
of
1859
he
made
the
acquaintance
of
Sir
William
Thomson,
his
future
friend
and
partner.
Mr.
Lewis
Gordon,
of
Messrs.
R.
S.
Newall
&
Co.,
afterwards
the
earliest
professor
of
engineering
in
a
British
University,
was
then
in
Glasgow
seeing
Sir
William's
instruments
for
testing
and
signalling
on
the
first
Atlantic
cable
during
the
six
weeks
of
its
working.
Mr.
Gordon
said
he
should
like
to
show
them
to
'a
young
man
of
remarkable
ability,'
engaged
at
their
Birkenhead
Works,
and
Jenkin,
being
telegraphed
for,
arrived
next
morning,
and
spent
a
week
in
Glasgow,
mostly
in
Sir
William's
class-room
and
laboratory
at
the
old
college.
Sir
William
tells
us
that
he
was
struck
not
only
with
Jenkin's
brightness
and
ability,
but
with
his
resolution
to
understand
everything
spoken
of;
to
see,
if
possible,
thoroughly
into
every
difficult
question,
and
to
slur
over
nothing.
'I
soon
found,'
he
remarks,
'that
thoroughness
of
honesty
was
as
strongly
engrained
in
the
scientific
as
in
the
moral
side
of
his
character.'
Their
talk
was
chiefly
on
the
electric
telegraph;
but
Jenkin
was
eager,
too,
on
the
subject
of
physics.
After
staying
a
week
he
returned
to
the
factory;
but
he
began
experiments,
and
corresponded
briskly
with
Sir
William
about
cable
work.
That
great
electrician,
indeed,
seems
to
have
infected
his
visitor
during
their
brief
contact
with
the
magnetic
force
of
his
personality
and
enthusiasm.
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