Text: Silvanus P Thompson The lecture is named in honour of Silvanus P Thompson. Teacher, researcher and Past President of the Institution. Educated at Bootham School, York, where his father was a master, he obtained his BA degree in 1869, an honours BSc from the Royal School of Mines in 1875, and a DSc in 1878. Following nine years as Professor of Experimental Physics at University College, Bristol, he became Principal of the Finsbury Technical College in 1885, a post which he held for thirty years. Finsbury Technical College was the prototype of today's Technical Colleges and Polytechnics. Despite the demands on his time as Principal of a College with 165 day students and 912 evening students, he gave ten to twelve lectures a week. He believed that practical study was more important than lectures. Students spent twice as much time in the laboratory, workshop and drawing office, as in the lecture room. In addition to his college work, he was in great demand for lectures and presentations, not only in this country, but also on the continent where his fluency in Italian, German and French proved a great asset. His first book, "Elementary Lessons in Electricity and Magnetism" was edited and reprinted 40 times, but he is probably remembered more for his "Calculus Made Easy", still available today, than any other work. Experiments in "binaural audition", reported in the Philosophical Magazine in 1877, 1878 and 1881, gave information which is basic to today's stereophonic sound reproduction. Boyhood sketches and cartoons fostered an interest in art and he became an accomplished water-colour artist. He was a Fellow of the Spectacle Makers Guild, the first President of the Illuminating Engineering Society in 1909, President of the Institution of Electrical Engineers in 1899 and President of the Engineering Section of the British Association in 1907. But his primary obsession was always education, and it is his skill as a teacher and lecturer par excellence that this series of lectures bearing his name commemorates.

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