At an age when most girls are puzzling over the toilettes of their dolls Mrs. Hertha Ayrton was showing an aptitude for deep and serious study in various directions, and she had only just turned sixteen when she was earning her own living as a teacher at the famous college of Girton, near Cambridge. It was while at Girton that Mrs. Ayrton began original scientific investigations, and she ultimately returned to London for special study. She entered the Finsbury Institute, and there met the distinguished scientist who afterwards became her husband. For many years Mrs. Ayrton and her husband worked side by side on electrical investigations, and since Professor Ayr-ton's death, in 1908, his wife has continued those experiments which have made her so eminent in the world of science. She is the only woman member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers, and was the first woman to be honoured by the Royal Society, which four years ago awarded her the Hughes medal for her investigations on the electric arc. And yet this lady scientist who has so many inventions and discoveries to her name confesses that she cannot " learn things easily." " I am very bad at examinations," she says, " and I only got third class in mathematics when I was at Girton." She believes, however, that women are particularly gifted for scientific work. "They have a great habit of putting two and two together, she says, "and they have quite as good powers of observation as men, and greater patience."

Mrs. Hertha Ayrton Mendelssohn