Manchester, England/manchester424
Previous | Home | NextThe autobiography of Roscoe is a fascinating account of the late Victorian times in Manchester. Roscoe inaugurated an educational system at Owens halfway between the strict professional system of the German universities and the freer tutorial system of Cambridge or Oxford. Roscoe always stressed that the industrial society of Manchester and the science educational system at Owens depended upon each other, with a practical view to growth, curriculum, and culture. When Confederate cotton ended in 1862 (because of the Union blockade in the U.S. Civil War), Roscoe organized not only economic relief but he inaugurated evening recreation for those thrown out of work. Under Roscoe's guidance the student body grew; notable students included J. J. Thomson, the discoverer of the electron at Cambridge University in 1897 {LINK: Cambridge}, who was a student here at the age of 14 in 1870. Roscoe's hard work culminated in a new University of Manchester (1873) which gave us Rutherford and his team who elucidated the structure of the atom.
