William 'Lord' Kelvin - remarkable 19th-century pioneering physicist and inventor
William Thomson, who became Baron Kelvin of Largs, was a Belfast-born physicist, mathematician, and scientist who made discoveries in fields as diverse as thermodynamics and telegraphy. But he is best-known for inventing the absolute temperature scale - or ‘Kelvin’ scale.
Thomson was born in 1824, and was home-schooled by his mathematician father. He was admitted to study at the University of Glasgow at just ten years old! He went on to study at Peterhouse, Cambridge and graduated with the highest available honours in 1845. It was at Cambridge that he embarked on a comparative study of the distribution of electrostatic force and the distribution of heat - concluding that the two are mathematically equivalent. He published this work, and it became the foundation of his later work involving electric and magnetic fields.
After further study in Paris, Thomson returned to Glasgow and was appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy there at only 22 years of age. He held this post for 53 years.
Collaboration with other scientists was important to Thomson, who had made many valuable connections in the scientific world when he was young through his father. He met physicist James Joule in 1847, and in the 1850s, their collaboration led to Thomson positing a version of the second law of thermodynamics: heat cannot be spontaneously transferred from a colder to a hotter body. The pair's work together also led to the discovery of the Joule-Thomson effect, in which the temperature of a gas is lowered via expansion from high pressure to low pressure. Furthermore, Thomson's work in thermodynamics resulted in his development of the absolute temperature scale that is commonly known as the Kelvin scale.
Thomson's overriding goal was the practical utilisation of science. He achieved fame through his work on submarine telegraphy, a major practical problem of the day. He had patented a 'mirror galvanometer' (telegraph receiver), and it was in high demand following the successful laying of the first transatlantic cable in the Atlantic Ocean in 1857-1858 and 1865-1866. It was core to a global network of submarine cables, and the money he received from selling his patented devices - and his partnership in two engineering firms - enabled him to purchase a baronial estate.
His interest in marine issues also inspired him to develop a mariners' compass, and to invent a tide machine and depth-measuring equipment. He invented many electrical instruments and his house in Glasgow was the first to be lit by electric light.
Thomson was raised to the peerage with the title of Baron Kelvin of Largs in 1892 (the Kelvin was a small river that flowed near Glasgow University). He died in 1907 in Ayrshire, and is buried in Westminster Abbey.
Further reading
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