User:Grace1381/sandbox

Professorship[edit]
In 1886, Threlfall was appointed professor of physics at the University of Sydney and founded the school. He had no building and little apparatus when he began his work, but in 1888 a physical laboratory was completed and the necessary appliances were purchased. He carried out his duties with energy and also found time for research. An early invention was the rocking microtome, an instrument which proved to be of great value in biological study. Another was a quartz thread balance which enabled him to obtain great accuracy in his comparison of values for gravity at different places. In 1896 he was president of a royal commission on the carriage of coal in ships. He obtained leave of absence in 1898 to inquire into methods of teaching electrical subjects in Europe, but on his return resigned his chair as from 31 December 1898, as circumstances had made it necessary that he should live in England.