Editing Cavendish Laboratory (section)

==Founding==
[[File:Cavendish Laboratory door.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Entrance at the original Cavendish Laboratory site on [[Free School Lane]]]]

[[File:Sir Ernest Rutherfords laboratory, early 20th century. (9660575343).jpg|thumb|Sir Ernest Rutherford's physics laboratory &ndash; early 20th century]]

The Cavendish Laboratory was initially located on the [[New Museums Site]], [[Free School Lane]], in the centre of Cambridge. It is named after British chemist and physicist [[Henry Cavendish]]<ref name=history>{{cite web |url=http://www.phy.cam.ac.uk/history/ |title=The History of the Cavendish |date=13 August 2013 |publisher=University of Cambridge |access-date=17 August 2015 |archive-date=8 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130408185833/http://www.phy.cam.ac.uk/history/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=ahisotry>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofcavendi00londuoft |title=A history of the Cavendish laboratory, 1871–1910 |year=1910}}</ref> for contributions to science<ref>[http://www-outreach.phy.cam.ac.uk/camphy/laboratory/laboratory4_1.htm "Professor and Laboratory "] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118091305/http://www-outreach.phy.cam.ac.uk/camphy/laboratory/laboratory4_1.htm |date=2012-01-18 }}, Cambridge University</ref> and his relative [[William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire]], who served as chancellor of the university and donated funds for the construction of the laboratory.<ref>''The Times'', 4 November 1873, p. 8</ref>

Professor [[James Clerk Maxwell]], the developer of [[electromagnetic theory]], was a founder of the laboratory and the first [[Cavendish Professor of Physics]].<ref>Dennis Moralee, [http://www.phy.cam.ac.uk/history/old_maxwell.php "Maxwell's Cavendish"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130915013523/http://www.phy.cam.ac.uk/history/old_maxwell.php |date=2013-09-15 }}, from the booklet "A Hundred Years and More of Cambridge Physics"</ref> The Duke of Devonshire had given to Maxwell, as head of the laboratory, the manuscripts of Henry Cavendish's unpublished ''Electrical Works''. The editing and publishing of these was Maxwell's main scientific work while he was at the laboratory. Cavendish's work aroused Maxwell's intense admiration and he decided to call the Laboratory (formerly known as the Devonshire Laboratory) the Cavendish Laboratory and thus to commemorate both the Duke and Henry Cavendish.<ref>[http://www-outreach.phy.cam.ac.uk/camphy/museum/area1/maxwell.htm "James Clerk Maxwell"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150224014615/http://www-outreach.phy.cam.ac.uk/camphy/museum/area1/maxwell.htm# |date=2015-02-24 }}, Cambridge University</ref><ref name=austin>{{cite web |url=http://www.austinmemories.com/page160/page160.html |title=Austin Wing of the Cavendish Laboratory |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121121233127/http://www.austinmemories.com/page160/page160.html |archive-date=2012-11-21}}</ref>