Thomson

William Thomson

Born: 26 June 1824 in Belfast, Ireland
Died: 17 Dec 1907 in Netherhall (near Largs), Ayrshire, Scotland

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William Thomson's thermodynamics studies led to his proposal of an absolute scale of temperature.

The Kelvin absolute temperature scale derives its name from the title, Baron Kelvin of Largs, that Thomson received from the British government in 1892.

Thomson attended Glasgow University from the age of 10. While there he read Fourier's work on the application of abstract mathematics to heat flow.

In 1841 Thomson entered Cambridge and took his BA in 1845. In that year he read George Green's work which had a major influence on Thomson's work.

Thomson was appointed professor of natural philosophy at the University of Glasgow in 1846 and remained there for the rest of his career. In 1847-49 he collaborated with Stokes on hydrodynamical studies, which Thomson applied to electrical and atomic theory.

The absolute scale he proposed in 1848 was based on a theory of heat by Sadi Carnot.

Thomson also observed (1852) what is now called the Joule-Thomson effect, namely that the decrease in temperature of a gas when it expands in a vacuum.

Greatly interested in the improvement of physical instrumentation, he designed and implemented many new devices, including the mirror-galvanometer that was used in the first successful sustained telegraph transmissions in transatlantic submarine cable. He was knighted in 1866 for his work on the transatlantic cable. Thomson's participation in the telegraph cable project led to a large personal fortune brought about by his cable patents and consulting.

Thomson published more than 600 papers, was elected to the Royal Society in 1851 and served as its president from 1890 to 1895. His abliity to lecture however is questioned in this quote by Thomas Hirst:

More random unsatisfactory lectures I never listened to.

References elsewhere in this archive:

Tell me about Thomson's work on special relativity

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica
  3. H I Sharlin and T Sharlin, Lord Kelvin: The Dynamic Victorian (1979).
  4. S P Thomson, The Life of Lord Kelvin (London, 1976).
  5. E T King, Lord Kelvin's Early Home (1909).
  6. C Smith and M N Wise, Energy and Empire: A Biographical Study of Lord Kelvin (1989).
  7. D B Wilson, Kelvin and Stokes: A Comparative Study in Victorian Physics (1987).
  8. D Murray, Lord Kelvin as Professor in the Old College Glasgow (Glassgow, 1924).
  9. A Russell, Lord Kelvin, his life and work (London, 1939).
  10. A P Young, Lord Kelvin, Physicist, Mathematician, Engineer (London, 1945). 
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JOC/EFR February 1996