The Life of William Thomson, Baron Kelvin of Largs 2 Volume Set

by Silvanus Phillips Thompson

Overview

The mathematician and physicist William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, (1824–1907) was one of Britain's most influential scientists, famous for his work on the first and second laws of thermodynamics and for devising the Kelvin scale of absolute temperature. Silvanus P. Thompson (1851–1916) began this biography with the co-operation of Kelvin in 1906, but the project was interrupted by Kelvin's death the following year. Thompson, himself a respected physics lecturer and scientific writer, decided that a more comprehensive biography would be needed and spent several years reading through Kelvin's papers in order to complete these two volumes, published in 1910. Volume 1 covers Kelvin's early career, his research in thermodynamics, and his applied work on telegraphs and cables. Volume 2 deals with Kelvin's later career, aspects of his personal life including his enthusiasm for sailing and music, and the relationship between his scientific discoveries and his religious beliefs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108027199
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	05/19/2011
Series:	Cambridge Library Collection - Physical Sciences
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	1368
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.60(h) x 3.20(d)

Table of Contents

Volume 1: Preface; 1. Childhood, and upbringing at Glasgow; 2. Cambridge; 3. Post-graduate studies at Paris and Peterhouse; 4. The Glasgow Chair; 5. The young professor; 6. Thermodynamics; 7. The laboratory; 8. The Atlantic telegraph: failure; 9. Strenuous years; 10. The epoch-making treatise; 11. The Atlantic telegraph: success; 12. Labour and sorrow; 13. The geological controversy; 14. Later telegraphic work: the siphon recorder. Volume 2: 15. The 'Lalla Rookh', the British Association, and the 'Hooper'; 16. In the Seventies; 17. Navigation – the compass and the sounding machine; 18. Gyrostatics and wave motion; 19. In the Eighties; 20. The Baltimore lectures; 21. Gathering up the threads; 22. The peerage; 23. The jubilee. Retirement; 24. The great comprehensive theory; 25. Views and opinions; 26. The closing years; Appendices; Index.