Table of Contents
Acknowledgements v
Demonic Interlude I In which the demon is summoned 1
Chapter 1 Not a little uncouth in his manners 5
Edinburgh and Glenlair 6
The Academy 10
The young mathematician 14
Churchman and country squire 17
The university life 20
A particular light 23
The path to Cambridge 26
Demonic Interlude II In which electricity meets magnetism 31
Natural electricity 32
From the skies to the laboratory 35
Magnetic matter 38
The birth of electromagnetism 40
A matter of speculation 44
Chapter 2 A most original young man 49
Stepping up to Trinity 50
Becoming an Apostle 52
Cats and rhymes 55
The Wranglers 56
Colour vision 58
The true primaries 61
A peculiar inability 65
Quantifying Faraday's fields 67
For the benefit of working men 72
A new destination 75
Demonic Interlude III In which atoms become real and heat gets moving 81
Atoms exist 81
A better model of heat 85
Chapter 3 The young professor 89
A city divided 89
His lectures were terrible 92
Lord of the rings 96
Life in Aberdeen 103
E pur si muove 107
Statistics to the rescue 110
A new family 113
Accommodating the British Ass 116
Leaving Aberdeen 119
Demonic Interlude IV In which the demon's challenge is posed 121
The tyranny of the second law 122
The demon is summoned 125
Doing it without energy 127
Chapter 4 A capital adventure 131
Science at King's 131
Bring colour to the Institution 135
Electromagnetism goes mechanical 138
Maxwell's electromagnetic spheres 141
Vortices and idle wheels 144
The power of analogy 146
Demonic Interlude V In which the demon becomes a star 151
Victorian computer dating 151
The demon's catechism 154
Chapter 5 Seeing the light 157
The power of flexible cells 157
Waves in the ether 160
Seeing the light 163
Too heavy for one person to discharge 166
The Great London Exposition 168
Chapter 6 Science by numbers 171
The viscosity engine 174
Stereoscopes and coffins 177
A standard for resistance 179
The velocity of a resistor 183
Electromagnetism without visible support 185
In the mathematical belfry 188
A new physics 190
The beautiful equations 193
Getting away from it all 196
Demonic Interlude VI In which the demon suffers a setback 199
The cost of measurement 199
Chapter 7 On the estate 205
Glenlair life 206
Back to viscosity 208
The wine merchant's batteries 211
Meet the governor 213
Thinking in four dimensions 215
The life academic 218
Chapter 8 Cambridge beckons 221
The Cavendish connection 221
A different professor 224
The last second home 228
Ancient lights and modern physics 233
A slow start 237
Women in the laboratory 239
Demonic Interlude VII In which the demons memory is challenged 243
Forgetting is never easy 244
Chapter 9 The last work 247
Books and the power of light 247
The Cavendish papers 250
Passing fancies 252
A sudden end 255
Demonic Interlude VIII In which the demon lives on to fight another day 257
The reality of loopholes 257
Chapter 10 The legacy 263
Notes 269
Index 285
