Abstract
THE great Exhibition, held in 1851, resulted in a large profit which was well invested, and the income has for many years been awarded as scholarships to research students. The results prove that it was one of the best investments ever made. John Cunningham McLennan, among many other men ultimately distinguished in science, received such an award, and it enabled him to join the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge from his home in Ontario after his graduation at the University of Toronto. Under the guidance of Sir J. J. Thomson, the Cavendish was enjoying a burst of discovery in connexion with the electron and the ionisation of gases. Young McLennan quickly caught fire, and on his return to Toronto as a demonstrator in physics, at the age of thirty-two, he published a paper in the Transactions of the Royal Society (195, 1899) in which he proved that the ionisation of gases due to electrons in motion was similar in type to that due to Rontgen rays or the radiations from uranium.
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EVE, A. Sir John McLennan, K.B.E., F.R.S.. Nature 136, 633–634 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136633a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136633a0