Reprint of Papers on Electrostatics and Magnetism (Cambridge Library Collection - Physical Sciences)
(William Thomson, Baron Kelvin (1824-1907), born with a gr...)
William Thomson, Baron Kelvin (1824-1907), born with a great talent for mathematics and physics, was educated at Glasgow and Cambridge. While only in his twenties, he was appointed to the University of Glasgow's Chair in Natural Philosophy, which he was to hold for over fifty years. He is best known for lending his name to the Kelvin unit of measurement for temperature, after his development of an absolute scale of temperature. This book is a corrected 1884 edition of Kelvin's 1872 collection of papers on electrostatics and magnetism. It includes all his work on these subjects previously published as articles in journals including the Cambridge Mathematical Journal and the Transactions of the Royal Society. Kelvin also wrote several new items to fill gaps in this collection, so that its coverage of the state of electromagnetic research in the late nineteenth century is comprehensive.
Elements of Natural Philosophy (Cambridge Library Collection - Physical Sciences)
(In 1867, Sir William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) and Pete...)
In 1867, Sir William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) and Peter Guthrie Tate revolutionised physics with the publication of their Treatise on Natural Philosophy, in which they demonstrated the centrality of energy conservation to systems of dynamic movement. Popularly known as 'T&T' for its authors' initials, the Treatise became the standard textbook on natural philosophy, introducing generations of mathematicians to the 'new energy-based dynamics'. In Elements of Natural Philosophy (1873), they distil the portions of the Treatise not requiring higher calculus into a primer suitable for use in university courses. The first half covers the basic principles of kinematics and dynamics, including the motion of points, lines, and volumes, while the second half concerns questions of 'abstract dynamics', including particle attraction. The result of one of the most important collaborations in modern physics, this book remains a thorough introduction to the major principles of Thomson and Tait's larger work.
Baltimore Lectures on Molecular Dynamics and the Wave Theory of Light (Cambridge Library Collection - Physical Sciences)
(The mathematical physicist and engineer William Thomson, ...)
The mathematical physicist and engineer William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (1824-1904) is best known for devising the Kelvin scale of absolute temperature and for his work on the first and second laws of thermodynamics. The lectures in this collection demonstrate an attempt by Baron Kelvin to formulate a physical model for the existence of ether. This concept of a medium for light propagation became prominent in the late nineteenth century, arising from the combination of Maxwell's equations stating that light is an electromagnetic wave with the demands of Newtonian physics that light must move in a unique reference frame. First published in 1904, Kelvin's lectures describe the difficulties inherent in this model. These problems with the concept of ether are credited for inspiring Einstein to devise the theory of special relativity and the photoelectric effect, both of which are central to modern physics.
William Thomson, Baron Kelvin, in full William Thomson, Baron Kelvin of Largs, also called Sir William Thomson, was a Scottish engineer, mathematician, and physicist. His studies of thermodynamics and after whom the absolute temperature scale was named.
Background
Kelvin was born on June 26, 1824 in Belfast. His father, James Thomson, was a teacher of mathematics and engineering at Royal Belfast Academical Institution and the son of a farmer. James Thomson married Margaret Gardner in 1817 and, of their children, four boys and two girls survived infancy. Margaret Thomson died in 1830 when William was six years old.
Education
Kelvin received his early education from his father, a professor of mathematics. In 1834 he entered the University of Glasgow. Six years later, at the age of seventeen, he left Glasgow to enter Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he proved himself an outstanding student of mathematics. Following his graduation in 1845, he attended the University of Paris for several months and worked in the laboratory of the French physicist Henri Victor Regnault.
In 1846 Kelvin became professor of natural philosophy at Glasgow, a chair which he held until 1899, during which time he acquired a widespread reputation as one of the foremost scientists of his day. At Glasgow he established the first physics laboratory in Great Britain, and his lectures, scientific papers, and researches were a source of inspiration to all students of science.
His experiments on the mechanical properties of heat, inspired by the work of N. L. Sadi Carnot and by J. P. Joule's doctrine of the mutual relation between heat and work, led to a reconciliation of their apparently conflicting theories and to the formulation of a dynamical theory of heat. The two great laws of thermodynamics - the law of equivalence and the law of transformation - are based on Kelvin's conclusions regarding the absolute scale of temperature and the principle of the dissipation of energy. He later completed his thermodynamic work by enunciating the doctrine of available energy. In addition to his work in the pure sciences, Kelvin also made many contributions to practical science, especially in the field of electricity.
He became a director of the Atlantic Telegraph Co. in 1856 and served as electrician aboard the Agamemnon in the disappointing attempt of 1858 to lay an Atlantic cable. For the next eight years he diligently struggled to overcome the many problems presented by submarine telegraphy and in 1866 personally supervised the memorable laying of the Atlantic cable by the Great Eastern, which at last proved successful. Kelvin also urged the adoption of a standard metrical system of electric measuring units and was responsible for the invention of improved instruments of electrical measurement, such as the quadrant electrometer and the absolute electrometer. With the advent of electric lighting he turned his attention to the development of many new devices and instruments in this field; his interest in navigation led to the development of an improved mariner's compass, which made possible the device compensating for the magnetism of an iron ship, and to the invention of a new sounding apparatus. His other inventions in this field include a tide gauge, a tide predictor, and a tidal harmonic analyzer.
He was raised to the peerage in 1892 as Baron Kelvin of Largs, Ayrshire. In 1896 the jubilee of his professorship was celebrated at Glasgow, at which time he was honored by many of the most eminent scientists of the world and awarded the Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order. Three years later he resigned his professorship and retired to his home in Largs, Scotland, where he died on December 17, 1907. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, London. He had a large number of patents to his credit and published numerous scientific papers, including the well-known Treatise on Natural Philosophy (1867).
(William Thomson, Baron Kelvin (1824-1907), born with a gr...)
Views
Quotations:
Regarding science, Thomson wrote the following:
"In physical science a first essential step in the direction of learning any subject is to find principles of numerical reckoning and practicable methods for measuring some quality connected with it. I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about and express it in numbers you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind: it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science, whatever the matter may be."
Membership
He was a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1847), foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (1851), fellow of the Royal Society (1851), honorary member of the Royal College of Preceptors (College of Teachers, 1858), honorary member of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland (1859).
Connections
In September 1852, Kelvin married childhood sweetheart Margaret Crum, daughter of Walter Crum; but her health broke down on their honeymoon and, over the next seventeen years, Thomson was distracted by her suffering.