Lord Kelvin: An account of his scientific life and work

The first statement of the true dynamical theory of heat, based on the fundamental idea that the work done in a Carnot cycle is to be accounted for by an excess of the heat rece...

In the second edition many topics are more fully discussed, and the contents include a very valuable account of cycloidal motion (or oscillatory motion, as it is more usually ca...

In describing Thomson's early electrical researches we shall not enter into detailed calculations, but merely explain the methods employed. The meaning of certain technical term...

Thomson devoted great attention from time to time to the science of hydrodynamics. This is perhaps the most abstruse subject in the domain of applied mathematics, and when visco...

It remains to say something of Lord Kelvin's public and practical activities. All over the world he came ultimately to be recognised as the greatest living scientific authority...

During his residence at Cambridge Thomson gained the friendship of George Gabriel Stokes, who had graduated as Senior Wrangler and First Smith's Prizeman in 1841. They discussed...

It is impossible to convey to those who never studied at Glasgow any clear conception of Thomson as he appeared to students whom he met daily during the session. His appearance...

In December 1851 Thomson communicated an important paper to the _Philosophical Magazine_ on "The Mechanical Theory of Electrolysis," and "Applications of Mechanical Effect to th...

The incumbent of the Chair of Natural Philosophy in the University of Glasgow, Professor Meikleham, had been in failing health for several years, and from 1842 to 1845 his dutie...

From his student days throughout his life, Lord Kelvin took a keen interest in geological questions. He was always an active member of the Geological Society of Glasgow, and was...

When the question of laying an Atlantic cable began to be debated in the middle of the nineteenth century, Professor Thomson undertook the discussion of the theory of signalling...

The meeting of Thomson and Joule at Oxford in 1847 was fraught with important results to the theory of heat. Thomson had previously become acquainted with Carnot's essay, most p...

Lord Kelvin came of a stock which has helped to give to the north of Ireland its commercial and industrial supremacy over the rest of that distressful country. His ancestors wer...

The Baltimore Lectures were delivered in 1884 at Johns Hopkins University, soon after the Montreal meeting of the British Association. The subject chosen was the Wave Theory of...

In 1834, that is at the age of ten, William Thomson entered the University classes. Though small in stature, and youthful even for a time when mere boys were University students...

Thomson entered at St. Peter's College, Cambridge, in October 1841, and began the course of study then in vogue for mathematical honours. At that time, as always down almost to...

measurement of differences of electric potential. These all act by the evaluation in terms of ordinary dynamical units of the force urging an electrified body from a place of hi...

Professor Tait was appointed to the Chair of Natural Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh in 1860, and came almost immediately into frequent contact with Thomson. Both were...

When Professor Thomson began his work as a teacher in the University of Glasgow, there was, as has already been noticed, great vagueness of specification of physical quantities....

One of the principal results was the discovery that the effect of longitudinal pull is to increase the inductive magnetisation of soft iron, and of transverse thrust to diminish...