MAGNUS
MACLEANPROFESSOR MACLEAN is a native of Skye. On coming to Glasgow in 1877 to qualify for the teaching profession he entered the Free Church Training College. After some experience as a teacher in Sutherlandshire, he resumed study at Glasgow University in November, 1881. A few months earlier he had been appointed a Bursar of the London Highland Society for three years; at the entrance examinations in Gilmorehill he won the Lorimer Bursary in Mathematics for a similar period; and soon afterwards he was appointed a "Thomson" experimental scholar in the physical laboratory.
Mr. Maclean was selected in 1884 by Lord Kelvin, then Sir William Thomson, as chief assistant in the class of Natural Philosophy. In this post he soon acquired a reputation as a successful lecturer and teacher of science. As a result, in addition to his assistant-professorship, he was appointed by the University Court in 1892 Lecturer on Physics to medical students, and in 1895 Lecturer on Pure and Applied Electricity to the engineering students of the University. During his tenure of office he found time to prosecute original investigations, the results of which he contributed either singly or jointly with Lord Kelvin and others to various learned societies, such as the Philosophical Society of Glasgow, the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh, and the British Association; and his alma mater conferred on him the further degree of D.Sc.
On the chair of Electrical Engineering in the Technical College falling vacant in 1899, Dr. Maclean was chosen for the post. He is an Examiner in Experimental Physics at the University of Edinburgh, and was the first Celtic Lecturer under the Kelly-Maccallum foundation in the University of Glasgow. His lectures have since been published in two volumes under the titles "The Literature of the Celts," and "The Literature of the Highlands." Dr. Maclean has always interested himself in Celtic and educational matters. He usually attends the meetings of the British Association, of which he was a local joint-secretary, and editor of one of the handbooks, on its last visit to Glasgow, and he frequently lectures to scientific and Celtic societies during the winter months. In 1903 he was a member of the Mosely Education Commission to the United States, and contributed a report and various press articles on the visit. He holds office in various local scientific and educational societies.
In his own special department of electrical engineering, in addition to his contributions in the Philosophical Magazine, Nature, The Electrician, and other technical journals, and to his useful books for students on "Physical Units," "Exercises in Natural Philosophy," and "Exercises in Electrical Engineering," Dr. Maclean is at present re-issuing for the Gresham Publishing Company the important work on "Modern Electric Practice," in six large volumes.