Autograph letter signed to Latimer Clark

Japan's Telegraphic System

Ayrton, William Edward (1847-1908). A.L.s. to Latimer Clark. Tokyo, March 2, n.y. [between 1873 and 1878]. 7pp. 155 x 101 mm. Provenance: Latimer Clark.

Ayrton, a pupil of Sir William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin), was a noted physicist, electrical engineer, inventor, and technical educator; his wife was the physicist Hertha Ayrton, best known for her investigations of the electric arc and of sand ripples. For five years Ayrton served as professor of physics and telegraphy at the Imperial Engineering College in Tokyo, Japan (at one time the world's largest technical university), where he established the first laboratory in Japan for teaching applied electricity. During his time in Japan Ayrton performed an enormous amount of experimental research, some of which is mentioned in detail in his letter to Clark. The letter concludes by referring to the disturbances to Japan's telegraphic system caused by "the revolution which exists in the South," i.e., one of the many Samurai revolts occasioned by the rise of the centralized Meiji government in 1868. Upon his return to England, Ayrton served for some time as Clark's scientific advisor. Origins of Cyberspace 113.