The Rt. Hon. The Lord Kelvin
Born	26 June 1824(1824-06-26) Belfast, Co. Antrim, Ireland
Died	17 December 1907[1] Largs, Ayrshire, Scotland, United Kingdom[1]

William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, OM, GCVO, PC, PRS, FRSE, (26 June 1824 – 17 December 1907) was an Irish mathematical physicist, engineer, and outstanding leader in the physical sciences of the 19th century. He did important work in the mathematical analysis of electricity and thermodynamics, and did much to unify the emerging discipline of physics in its modern form. He is widely known for developing the Kelvin scale of absolute temperature measurement. The title Baron Kelvin was given in honour of his achievements, and named after the River Kelvin, which flowed past his university in Glasgow, Scotland. There have been a number of people named William Thomson: William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (1824–1907), Irish physicist now usually known as Lord Kelvin William Thomson (archbishop) (1819–1890), Archbishop of York 1862–1890 William Thomson (musicologist) ( 1695–1753), Scottish folk song collector and singer William John Thomson, Scottish... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (944x1180, 385 KB) Summary Photograph of William Thomson, Lord Kelvin. ... is the 177th day of the year (178th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1824 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... This article is about the city in Northern Ireland. ... Statistics Province: Ulster County Town: Antrim Area: 2,844 km² Population (est. ... December 17 is the 351st day of the year (352nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1907 (MCMVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Largs (grid reference NS203592) is a burgh on the Firth of Clyde in North Ayrshire, Scotland, about 33 miles (53 km) from Glasgow. ... Ayrshire (Siorrachd Inbhir Àir in Scottish Gaelic) is a region of south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. ... This article is about the country. ... The Order of Merit is a British and Commonwealth Order bestowed by the Monarch. ... Queen Victoria founded the Royal Victorian Order. ... Her Majestys Most Honourable Privy Council is a body of advisors to the British Sovereign. ... The President of the Royal Society (PRS) is the elected head of the Royal Society of London. ... The Royal Society of Edinburghs Building on the corner of George St. ... is the 177th day of the year (178th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1824 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... December 17 is the 351st day of the year (352nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1907 (MCMVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Mathematical physics is the scientific discipline concerned with the application of mathematics to problems in physics and the development of mathematical methods suitable for such applications and for the formulation of physical theories. ... Look up engineer in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Physical science is the branch of science including chemistry and physics, usually contrasted with the social sciences and sometimes including and sometimes contrasted with natural or biological science. ... For other meanings of mathematics or uses of math and maths, see Mathematics (disambiguation) and Math (disambiguation). ... Electricity (from New Latin Ä“lectricus, amberlike) is a general term for a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. ... Thermodynamics (from the Greek θερμη, therme, meaning heat and δυναμις, dynamis, meaning power) is a branch of physics that studies the effects of changes in temperature, pressure, and volume on physical systems at the macroscopic scale by analyzing the collective motion of their particles using statistics. ... A magnet levitating above a high-temperature superconductor demonstrates the Meissner effect. ... For other uses, see Kelvin (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Baron (disambiguation). ... The Kelvin is Glasgows second river after the River Clyde. ... For other uses, see Glasgow (disambiguation). ... This article is about the country. ...

He also had a second career as a telegraph engineer and inventor, a career that propelled him into the public eye and ensured his wealth, fame and honour. ... For other uses, see Inventor (disambiguation). ...

Early life and work

Family

The identity of William Thomson's mother is yet unknown, however Willam was only six years old when she died. William's father was Dr. James Thomson, the son of a Belfast farmer. James received little youthful instruction in Ulster but, when 24 years old, started to study for half the year at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, while working as a teacher back in Belfast for the other half. On graduating, he became a mathematics teacher at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. He married Margaret Gardner in 1817 and, of their children, four boys and two girls survived infancy. This article is about the city in Northern Ireland. ... For other uses, see Farmer (disambiguation). ... This article is about the nine-county Irish province. ... Master of Theology (MTh) Dentistry Nursing Affiliations Russell Group Universitas 21 Website http://www. ... This article is about the country. ... For university teachers, see professor. ... For other meanings of mathematics or uses of math and maths, see Mathematics (disambiguation) and Math (disambiguation). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

William and his elder brother James were tutored at home by their father while the younger boys were tutored by their elder sisters. James was intended to benefit from the major share of his father's encouragement, affection and financial support and was prepared for a fashionable career in engineering. However, James was a sickly youth and proved unsuited to a sequence of failed apprenticeships. William soon became his father's favourite. James Thomson (February 16, 1822 - May 8, 1892) was an Irish engineer and physicist whose reputation would have been substantial had it not been overshadowed by that of his brother William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin. ... Engineering is the discipline of acquiring and applying knowledge of design, analysis, and/or construction of works for practical purposes. ... If youre looking for the TV show, see The Apprentice. ...

In 1832, his father was appointed professor of mathematics at Glasgow and the family relocated there in October 1833. The Thomson children were introduced to a broader cosmopolitan experience than their father's rural upbringing, spending the summer of 1839 in London and, the boys, being tutored in French in Paris. The summer of 1840 was spent in Germany and the Netherlands. Language study was given a high priority. For other uses, see Glasgow (disambiguation). ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... This article is about the capital of France. ...

Youth

Thomson had heart problems and nearly died when he was 9 years old. He began study at Glasgow University in 1834 at the age of 10, not out of any precociousness; the University provided many of the facilities of an elementary school for abler pupils and this was a typical starting age. In 1839, John Pringle Nichol, the professor of astronomy, took the chair of natural philosophy. Nichol updated the curriculum, introducing the new mathematical works of Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier. The mathematical treatment much impressed Thomson. John Pringle Nichol (1804 - 1859) was a Scottish educator and astronomer who did much to popularise astronomy in a manner that appealed to 19th century tastes. ... For other uses, see Astronomy (disambiguation). ... Natural philosophy or the philosophy of nature, known in Latin as philosophia naturalis, is a term applied to the objective study of nature and the physical universe that was regnant before the development of modern science. ... Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier (March 21, 1768 - May 16, 1830) was a French mathematician and physicist who is best known for initiating the investigation of Fourier series and their application to problems of heat flow. ...

In the academic year 1839-1840, Thomson won the class prize in astronomy for his Essay on the figure of the Earth which showed an early facility for mathematical analysis and creativity. Throughout his life, he would work on the problems raised in the essay as a coping strategy at times of personal stress. For other uses, see Astronomy (disambiguation). ... In psychology, coping is the process of managing taxing circumstances, expending effort to solve personal and interpersonal problems, and seeking to master, minimize, reduce or tolerate stress or conflict. ... In medical terms, stress is the disruption of homeostasis through physical or psychological stimuli. ...

Thomson became intrigued with Fourier's Théorie analytique de la chaleur and committed himself to study the "Continental" mathematics resisted by a British establishment still working in the shadow of Sir Isaac Newton. Unsurprisingly, Fourier's work had been attacked by domestic mathematicians, Philip Kelland authoring a critical book. The book motivated Thomson to write his first published scientific paper^[2] under the pseudonym P.Q.R., defending Fourier, and submitted to the Cambridge Mathematical Journal by his father. A second P.Q.R paper followed almost immediately.^[3] Sir Isaac Newton FRS (4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727) [ OS: 25 December 1642 – 20 March 1727][1] was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, and alchemist. ... In scientific publishing, a paper is a scientific article that is published in a scientific journal. ... A pseudonym (Greek: , pseudo + -onym: false name) is an artificial, fictitious name, also known as an alias, used by an individual as an alternative to a persons legal name. ...

While vacationing with his family in Lamlash in 1841, he wrote a third, more substantial, P.Q.R. paper On the uniform motion of heat in homogeneous solid bodies, and its connection with the mathematical theory of electricity.^[4] In the paper he made remarkable connections between the mathematical theories of heat conduction and electrostatics, an analogy that James Clerk Maxwell was ultimately to describe as one of the most valuable science-forming ideas.^[5] Lamlash Lamlash is the secondary village (after Brodick) on the Isle of Arran, situated in the Firth of Clyde, Scotland. ... Heat conduction or thermal conduction is the spontaneous transfer of thermal energy through matter, from a region of higher temperature to a region of lower temperature, and hence acts to even out temperature differences. ... Electrostatics (also known as static electricity) is the branch of physics that deals with the phenomena arising from what seem to be stationary electric charges. ... Analogy is both the cognitive process of transferring information from a particular subject (the analogue or source) to another particular subject (the target), and a linguistic expression corresponding to such a process. ... James Clerk Maxwell (13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish mathematician and theoretical physicist from Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. His most significant achievement was aggregating a set of equations in electricity, magnetism and inductance — eponymously named Maxwells equations — including an important modification (extension) of the Ampères...

Cambridge

William's father was able to make a generous provision for his favourite son's education and, in 1841, installed him, with extensive letters of introduction and ample accommodation, at Peterhouse, Cambridge. In 1845 Thomson graduated as Second Wrangler. However, he won a Smith's Prize, sometimes regarded as a better test of originality than the tripos. Robert Leslie Ellis, one of the examiners, is said to have declared to another examiner You and I are just about fit to mend his pens.^[6] College name Peterhouse Named after Saint Peter Established 1284 Previously named The Scholars of the Bishop of Ely Saint Peter’s College Location Trumpington Street Admittance Men and women Master The Lord Wilson of Tillyorn Undergraduates 284 Graduates 130 Sister college Merton College, Oxford Official website Boat Club website Peterhouse... For other uses, see Wrangler. ... The Smiths Prize is a prize awarded to research students in theoretical Physics, mathematics and applied mathematics at the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England. ... The University of Cambridge, England, divides the different kinds of honours bachelors degree by Tripos, a word which has an obscure etymology, but which may be traced to the three-legged stool candidates once used to sit on when taking oral examinations. ... Robert Leslie Ellis (25 August 1817 - 12 May 1859) was an English polymath, remembered principally as a a mathematician and editor of the works of Francis Bacon. ...

While at Cambridge, Thomson was active in sports and athletics. He won the Silver Sculls, and rowed in the winning boat of the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. He also took a lively interest in the classics, music, and literature; but the real love of his intellectual life was the pursuit of science. The study of mathematics, physics, and in particular, of electricity, had captivated his imagination. Boat Race Logo Exhausted crews at the finish of the 2002 Boat Race The Boat Race is a rowing race between the rowing clubs of the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. ... For other meanings of mathematics or uses of math and maths, see Mathematics (disambiguation) and Math (disambiguation). ... Electricity (from New Latin Ä“lectricus, amberlike) is a general term for a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. ...

In 1845 he gave the first mathematical development of Faraday's idea that electric induction takes place through an intervening medium, or "dielectric", and not by some incomprehensible "action at a distance". He also devised a hypothesis of electrical images, which became a powerful agent in solving problems of electrostatics, or the science which deals with the forces of electricity at rest. It was partly in response to his encouragement that Faraday undertook the research in September of 1845 that led to the discovery of the Faraday effect, which established that light and magnetic (and thus electric) phenomena were related. Michael Faraday, FRS (September 22, 1791 – August 25, 1867) was an English chemist and physicist (or natural philosopher, in the terminology of that time) who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. ... In physics, the Faraday effect or Faraday rotation is a magneto-optical phenomenon, or an interaction between light and a magnetic field. ...

On gaining a fellowship at his college, he spent some time in the laboratory of the celebrated Henri Victor Regnault, at Paris; but in 1846 he was appointed to the chair of natural philosophy in the University of Glasgow. At twenty-two he found himself wearing the gown of a learned professor in one of the oldest Universities in the country, and lecturing to the class of which he was a freshman but a few years before. Henri Victor Regnault (July 21, 1810 – January 19, 1878) was a French chemist and physicist best known for his careful measurements of the thermal properties of gases. ... This article is about the capital of France. ... University of Glasgow The Nova Erectio of King James VI of Scotland shared the teaching of Moral Philosophy, Logic and Natural Philosophy among the Regents. ... Master of Theology (MTh) Dentistry Nursing Affiliations Russell Group Universitas 21 Website http://www. ...

Influences: Nick Rodriguez (Texas) Albert Einstein

Thermodynamics

By 1847, Thomson had already gained a reputation as a precocious and maverick scientist when he attended the British Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Oxford. At that meeting, he heard James Prescott Joule making yet another of his, so far, ineffective attempts to discredit the caloric theory of heat and the theory of the heat engine built upon it by Sadi Carnot and Émile Clapeyron. Joule argued for the mutual convertibility of heat and mechanical work and for their mechanical equivalence. The British Association or the British Association for the Advancement of Science or the BA is a learned society with the object of promoting science, directing general attention to scientific matters, and facilitating intercourse between scientific workers. ... This article is about the city of Oxford in England. ... James Joule - English physicist James Prescott Joule, FRS (December 24, 1818 – October 11, 1889) was an English physicist, born in Sale, Cheshire. ... The caloric theory is an obsolete scientific theory that heat consists of a fluid called caloric that flows from hotter to colder bodies. ... For other uses, see Heat (disambiguation) In physics, heat, symbolized by Q, is energy transferred from one body or system to another due to a difference in temperature. ... A heat engine is a physical or theoretical device that converts thermal energy to mechanical output. ... Sadi Carnot in the dress uniform of a student of the École polytechnique Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot (June 1, 1796 - August 24, 1832) was a French physicist and military engineer who gave the first successful theoretical account of heat engines, now known as the Carnot cycle, thereby laying the... Emile_Clapeyron Benoit Paul Émile Clapeyron (February 26, 1799 - January 28, 1864) was an French engineer and physicist, considered as one of the founders of thermodynamics. ... In physics, mechanical work is the amount of energy transferred by a force. ...

Thomson was intrigued but skeptical. Though he felt that Joule's results demanded theoretical explanation, he retreated into an even deeper commitment to the Carnot-Clapeyron school. He predicted that the melting point of ice must fall with pressure, otherwise its expansion on freezing could be exploited in a perpetuum mobile. Experimental confirmation in his laboratory did much to bolster his beliefs. The melting point of a crystalline solid is the temperature range at which it changes state from solid to liquid. ... This article is about water ice. ... This article is about pressure in the physical sciences. ... This article or section should include material from Parallel Path See also Perpetuum mobile as a musical term Perpetual motion machines (the Latin term perpetuum mobile is not uncommon) are a class of hypothetical machines which would produce useful energy in a way science cannot explain (yet). ...

In 1848, he extended the Carnot-Clapeyron theory still further through his dissatisfaction that the gas thermometer provided only an operational definition of temperature. He proposed an absolute temperature scale^[7] in which a unit of heat descending from a body A at the temperature T° of this scale, to a body B at the temperature (T-1)°, would give out the same mechanical effect [work], whatever be the number T. Such a scale would be quite independent of the physical properties of any specific substance.^[8] By employing such a "waterfall", Thomson postulated that a point would be reached at which no further heat (caloric) could be transferred, the point of absolute zero about which Guillaume Amontons had speculated in 1702. Thomson used data published by Regnault to calibrate his scale against established measurements. Temperature is the physical property of a system which underlies the common notions of hot and cold; the material with the higher temperature is said to be hotter. ... An operational definition of a quantity is the description of a specific process, or set of validation tests, accessible to more persons than the definer (i. ... Absolute zero is the lowest temperature that can be obtained in any macroscopic system. ... Absolute zero is the lowest possible temperature where nothing could be colder, and no heat energy remains in a substance. ... Guillaume Amontons (August 31, 1663 - October 11, 1705) was a French instrument inventor and physicist. ... calibration refers to the process of determining the relation between the output (or response) of a measuring instrument and the value of the input quantity or attribute, a measurement standard. ...

In his publication, Thomson wrote:

... the conversion of heat (or caloric) into mechanical effect is probably impossible, certainly undiscovered

- but a footnote signalled his first doubts about the caloric theory, referring to Joule's very remarkable discoveries. Surprisingly, Thomson did not send Joule a copy of his paper but when Joule eventually read it he wrote to Thomson on 6 October, claiming that his studies had demonstrated conversion of heat into work but that he was planning further experiments. Thomson replied on 27 October, revealing that he was planning his own experiments and hoping for a reconciliation of their two views. is the 279th day of the year (280th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 300th day of the year (301st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Thomson returned to critique Carnot's original publication and read his analysis to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in January 1849,^[9] still convinced that the theory was fundamentally sound. However, though Thomson conducted no new experiments, over the next two years he became increasingly dissatisfied with Carnot's theory and convinced of Joule's. In February 1851 he sat down to articulate his new thinking. However, he was uncertain of how to frame his theory and the paper went through several drafts before he settled on an attempt to reconcile Carnot and Joule. During his rewriting, he seems to have considered ideas that would subsequently give rise to the second law of thermodynamics. In Carnot's theory, lost heat was absolutely lost but Thomson contended that it was "lost to man irrecoverably; but not lost in the material world". Moreover, his theological beliefs led to speculation about the heat death of the universe. The Royal Society of Edinburghs Building on the corner of George St. ... The second law of thermodynamics is an expression of the universal law of increasing entropy. ... Theology finds its scholars pursuing the understanding of and providing reasoned discourse of religion, spirituality and God or the gods. ... The heat death is a possible final state of the universe, in which it has run down to a state of no free energy to sustain motion or life. ...

I believe the tendency in the material world is for motion to become diffused, and that as a whole the reverse of concentration is gradually going on - I believe that no physical action can ever restore the heat emitted from the sun, and that this source is not inexhaustible; also that the motions of the earth and other planets are losing vis viva which is converted into heat; and that although some vis viva may be restored for instance to the earth by heat received from the sun, or by other means, that the loss cannot be precisely compensated and I think it probable that it is under compensated.^[10] Sol redirects here. ... Earth, also known as the Earth or Terra, is the third planet outward from the Sun. ... This article is about the astronomical term. ... Vis Viva is the principle that the difference between the aggregate work of the accelerating forces of a system and that of the retarding forces is equal to one half the vis viva accumulated or lost in the system while the work is being done. ...

Compensation would require a creative act or an act possessing similar power.^[10]

In final publication, Thomson retreated from a radical departure and declared "the whole theory of the motive power of heat is founded on ... two ... propositions, due respectively to Joule, and to Carnot and Clausius."^[11] Thomson went on to state a form of the second law:

It is impossible, by means of inanimate material agency, to derive mechanical effect from any portion of matter by cooling it below the temperature of the coldest of the surrounding objects.^[12]

In the paper, Thomson supported the theory that heat was a form of motion but admitted that he had been influenced only by the thought of Sir Humphry Davy and the experiments of Joule and Julius Robert von Mayer, maintaining that experimental demonstration of the conversion of heat into work was still outstanding.^[13] Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet, FRS (17 December 1778 – 29 May 1829) was a British chemist and physicist. ... Julius Robert von Mayer. ...

As soon as Joule read the paper he wrote to Thomson with his comments and questions. Thus began a fruitful, though largely epistolary, collaboration between the two men, Joule conducting experiments, Thomson analysing the results and suggesting further experiments. The collaboration lasted from 1852 to 1856, its discoveries including the Joule-Thomson effect, sometimes called the Kelvin-Joule effect, and the published results^[14] did much to bring about general acceptance of Joule's work and the kinetic theory. In physics, the Joule-Thomson effect, or Joule-Kelvin effect, is a process in which the temperature of a real gas is either decreased or increased by letting the gas expand freely at constant enthalpy (which means that no heat is transferred to or from the gas, and no external... Kinetic theory or kinetic theory of gases attempts to explain macroscopic properties of gases, such as pressure, temperature, or volume, by considering their molecular composition and motion. ...

Thomson published more than 600 scientific papers and filed over 70 patents.

Transatlantic cable

Calculations on data-rate

Though now eminent in the academic field, Thomson was obscure to the general public. In September 1852, he married childhood sweetheart Margaret Crum but her health broke down on their honeymoon and, over the next seventeen years, Thomson was distracted by her suffering. On 16 October 1854, George Gabriel Stokes wrote to Thomson to try to re-interest him in work by asking his opinion on some experiments of Michael Faraday on the proposed transatlantic telegraph cable. A honeymoon is the traditional trip taken by newlyweds to celebrate their marriage with seclusion and sexual intimacy. ... is the 289th day of the year (290th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1854 (MDCCCLIV) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Sir George Gabriel Stokes, 1st Baronet (13 August 1819–1 February 1903) was an Irish mathematician and physicist, who at Cambridge made important contributions to fluid dynamics (including the Navier-Stokes equations), optics, and mathematical physics (including Stokes theorem). ... Michael Faraday, FRS (September 22, 1791 – August 25, 1867) was an English chemist and physicist (or natural philosopher, in the terminology of that time) who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. ... The first transatlantic telegraph cable crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Foilhommerum, Valentia Island, in western Ireland to Hearts Content, in eastern Newfoundland. ...

To understand the technical issues in which Thomson became involved, see Submarine communications cable: Bandwidth problems

Faraday had demonstrated how the construction of a cable would limit the rate at which messages could be sent — in modern terms, the bandwidth. Thomson jumped at the problem and published his response that month.^[15] He expressed his results in terms of the data rate that could be achieved and the economic consequences in terms of the potential revenue of the transatlantic undertaking. In a further 1855 analysis,^[16] Thomson stressed the impact that the design of the cable would have on its profitability. The multitude of layers in a submarine communications cable is revealed by its Cross section. ... Bandwidth is the difference between the upper and lower cutoff frequencies of, for example, a filter, a communication channel, or a signal spectrum, and is typically measured in hertz. ... In telecommunication, data signaling rate (DSR) is the aggregate rate at which data pass a point in the transmission path of a data transmission system. ... Face-to-face trading interactions on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor. ... Look up revenue in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Profitability is a technical analysis term used to compare performances of different trading systems or different investments within one system. ...

Thomson contended that the speed of a signal through a given core was inversely proportional to the square of the length of the core. Thomson's results were disputed at a meeting of the British Association in 1856 by Wildman Whitehouse, the electrician of the Atlantic Telegraph Company. Whitehouse had possibly misinterpreted the results of his own experiments but was doubtless feeling financial pressure as plans for the cable were already well underway. He believed that Thomson's calculations implied that the cable must be "abandoned as being practically and commercially impossible." In algebra, the square of a number is that number multiplied by itself. ... For other uses of this word, see Length (disambiguation). ... Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse (1816 - January 26, 1890) was an English surgeon, better-known for his ultimately unsuccessful endeavours at electrical engineering on the transatlantic telegraph cable. ... TVA electricians, Tennessee, 1942. ... The Atlantic Telegraph Company was a company formed in 1856 to undertake and exploit a commercial telegraph cable across the Atlantic ocean, the first such telecommunications link. ...

Thomson attacked Whitehouse's contention in a letter to the popular Athenaeum magazine,^[17] pitching himself into the public eye. Thomson recommended a larger conductor with a larger cross section of insulation. However, he thought Whitehouse no fool and suspected that he may have the practical skill to make the existing design work. Thomson's work had, however, caught the eye of the project's undertakers and in December 1856, he was elected to the board of directors of the Atlantic Telegraph Company. The Athenaeum was a literary magazine published in London from 1828 to 1921. ... In science and engineering, conductors are materials that contain movable charges of electricity. ... A 3-D view of a beverage-can stove with a cross section in yellow. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Chairman of the Board redirects here. ...

Scientist to engineer

Thomson became scientific adviser to a team with Whitehouse as chief electrician and Sir Charles Tilston Bright as chief engineer but Whitehouse had his way with the specification, supported by Faraday and Samuel F. B. Morse. Charles Tilston Bright c. ... Specification may refer to several different concepts: Specification (standards) refers to specific standards Specificatio - a legal concept Specification (regression) refers to the practice of translating theory into a regression model Category: ... Samuel Finley Breese Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872) was an American painter of portraits and historic scenes, the creator of a single wire telegraph system, and co-inventor, with Alfred Vail, of the Morse Code. ...

Thomson sailed on board the cable-laying ship HMSS Agamemnon in August 1857, with Whitehouse confined to land owing to illness, but the voyage ended after just 380 miles when the cable parted. Thomson contributed to the effort by publishing in the Engineer the whole theory of the stresses involved in the laying of a submarine cable, and showed that when the line is running out of the ship, at a constant speed, in a uniform depth of water, it sinks in a slant or straight incline from the point where it enters the water to that where it touches the bottom.^[18] “Miles” redirects here. ... Stress is a measure of force per unit area within a body. ... For other uses, see Cable (disambiguation). ...

Thomson developed a complete system for operating a submarine telegraph that was capable of sending a character every 3.5 seconds. He patented the key elements of his system, the mirror galvanometer and the siphon recorder, in 1858. This article is about the unit of time. ... For other uses, see Patent (disambiguation). ... A mirror galvanometer A mirror galvanometer is a mechanical meter that senses electric current, except that instead of moving a needle, it moves a mirror. ... The siphon recorder is an item of telecommunications equipment invented by William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin. ...

However, Whitehouse still felt able to ignore Thomson's many suggestions and proposals. It was not until Thomson convinced the board that using a purer copper for replacing the lost section of cable would improve data capacity, that he first made a difference to the execution of the project.^[19] For other uses, see Copper (disambiguation). ...

The board insisted that Thomson join the 1858 cable-laying expedition, without any financial compensation, and take an active part in the project. In return, Thomson secured a trial for his mirror galvanometer, about which the board had been unenthusiastic, alongside Whitehouse's equipment. However, Thomson found the access he was given unsatisfactory and the Agamemnon had to return home following the disastrous storm of June 1858. Back in London, the board was on the point of abandoning the project and mitigating their losses by selling the cable. Thomson, Cyrus West Field and Curtis M. Lampson argued for another attempt and prevailed, Thomson insisting that the technical problems were tractable. Though employed in an advisory capacity, Thomson had, during the voyages, developed real engineer's instincts and skill at practical problem-solving under pressure, often taking the lead in dealing with emergencies and being unafraid to lend a hand in manual work. A cable was finally completed in August 5. For other uses, see Storm (disambiguation). ... Cyrus West Field Cyrus West Field c. ... Sir Curtis Miranda Lampson, 1st Baronet (September 21, 1806 - March 12, 1885) was a U.S.-English fur merchant, best remembered for his promotion of the transatlantic telegraph cable. ... is the 217th day of the year (218th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Disaster and triumph

Thomson's fears were realised and Whitehouse's apparatus proved insufficiently sensitive and had to be replaced by Thomson's mirror galvanometer. Whitehouse continued to maintain that it was his equipment that was providing the service and started to engage in desperate measures to remedy some of the problems. He succeeded only in fatally damaging the cable by applying 2,000 V. When the cable failed completely Whitehouse was dismissed, though Thomson objected and was reprimanded by the board for his interference. Thomson subsequently regretted that he had acquiesced too readily to many of Whitehouse's proposals and had not challenged him with sufficient energy.^[20] Look up V, v in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

A joint committee of inquiry was established by the Board of Trade and the Atlantic Telegraph Company. Most of the blame for the cable's failure was found to rest with Whitehouse.^[21] The committee found that, though underwater cables were notorious in their lack of reliability, most of the problems arose from known and avoidable causes. Thomson was appointed one of a five-member committee to recommend a specification for a new cable. The committee reported in October 1863.^[22] The Board of Trade circa 1808. ... Reliability concerns quality or consistency. ...

In July 1865 Thomson sailed on the cable-laying expedition of the SS Great Eastern but the voyage was again dogged with technical problems. The cable was lost after 1,200 miles had been laid and the expedition had to be abandoned. A further expedition in 1866 managed to lay a new cable in two weeks and then go on to recover and complete the 1865 cable. The enterprise was now feted as a triumph by the public and Thomson enjoyed a large share of the adulation. Thomson, along with the other principals of the project, was knighted on November 10, 1866. The SS Great Eastern was an iron sailing steam ship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. ... A statue of an armoured knight of the Middle Ages For the chess piece, see knight (chess). ... is the 314th day of the year (315th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1866 (MDCCCLXVI) is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ...

To exploit his inventions for signalling on long submarine cables, Thomson now entered into a partnership with C.F. Varley and Fleeming Jenkin. In conjunction with the latter, he also devised an automatic curb sender, a kind of telegraph key for sending messages on a cable. Cromwell Fleetwood Varley (April 6, 1828 - September 2, 1883) was an English engineer, particularly associated with the development of the electric telegraph and the transatlantic telegraph cable. ... Henry Charles Fleeming Jenkin (March 25, 1833 - June 12, 1885) was Professor of Engineering at Edinburgh University, remarkable for his versatility. ... The automatic curb sender was a kind of telegraph key, invented by William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin for sending messages on a submarine cable, as the well-known Wheatstone transmitter sends them on a land line. ... Telegraph key Telegraph key (also known as the Morse key) is a generic term for any switching device used primarily to send Morse code. ...

Later expeditions

Thomson took part in the laying of the French Atlantic submarine communications cable of 1869, and with Jenkin was engineer of the Western and Brazilian and Platino-Brazilian cables, assisted by vacation student James Alfred Ewing. He was present at the laying of the Pará to Pernambuco section of the Brazilian coast cables in 1873. The multitude of layers in a submarine communications cable is revealed by its Cross section. ... Sir James Alfred Ewing (March 27, 1855 - January 7, 1935) was a British physicist and engineer, best known for his work on the magnetic properties of metals and, in particular, for his discovery of, and coinage of the word, hysteresis. ... Nickname: Local da cidade de Belém, no estado do Pará State Pará County Belém Government  - Mayor Duciomar Gomes da Costa Area  - City 1,070 km²  (413. ... Capital (and largest city) Recife Demonym Pernambucano Government  -  Governor Eduardo Campos  -  Vice Governor João Lyra Neto Area  -  Total 98. ...

Thomson's wife had died on 17 June 1870 and he resolved to make changes in his life. Already addicted to seafaring, in September he purchased a 126 ton schooner, the Lalla Rookh and used it as a base for entertaining friends and scientific colleagues. His maritime interests continued in 1871 when he was appointed to the board of enquiry into the sinking of the HMS Captain. is the 168th day of the year (169th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1870 (MDCCCLXX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... Look up ton in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Two-masted fishing schooner A schooner (IPA: ) is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts. ... For other ships of the same name, see HMS Captain. ...

In June 1873, Thomson and Jenkin were onboard the Hooper, bound for Lisbon with 2,500 miles (4,020 km) of cable when the cable developed a fault. An unscheduled 16-day stop-over in Madeira followed and Thomson became good friends with Charles R. Blandy and his three daughters. On 2 May 1874 he set sail for Madeira on the Lalla Rookh. As he approached the harbour, he signalled to the Blandy residence Will you marry me? and Fanny signalled back Yes. Thomson married Fanny, 13 years his junior, on 24 June 1874. For other uses, see Lisbon (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Madeira (disambiguation). ... May 2 is the 122nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (123rd in leap years). ... Year 1874 (MDCCCLXXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link with display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... is the 175th day of the year (176th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1874 (MDCCCLXXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link with display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ...

Thomson & Tait: Treatise on Natural Philosophy

Over the period 1855 to 1867, Thomson collaborated with Peter Guthrie Tait on a text book that unified the various branches of physical science under the common principle of energy. Published in 1867, the Treatise on Natural Philosophy did much to define the modern discipline of physics. Peter Tait Peter Guthrie Tait (April 28, 1831 - July 4, 1901) was a Scottish mathematical physicist. ... Two textbooks A textbook is a book that strives to teach a student about a particular discipline, usually academic, and they are usually divided into chapters based on subject area. ... Treatise on Natural Philosophy was an 1867 text book by William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) and Peter Guthrie Tait, published by Oxford University Press, that did much to define the modern discipline of physics. ... A magnet levitating above a high-temperature superconductor demonstrates the Meissner effect. ...

Marine

Thomson's tide-predicting machine

Thomson was an enthusiastic yachtsman, his interest in all things relating to the sea perhaps arising, or at any rate fostered, from his experiences on the Agamemnon and the Great Eastern. Download high resolution version (600x700, 76 KB)Tide predicting machine, by Sir William Thomson in 1876. ... Download high resolution version (600x700, 76 KB)Tide predicting machine, by Sir William Thomson in 1876. ... The SS Great Eastern was an iron sailing steam ship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. ...

Thomson introduced a method of deep-sea sounding, in which a steel piano wire replaces the ordinary land line. The wire glides so easily to the bottom that "flying soundings" can be taken while the ship is going at full speed. A pressure gauge to register the depth of the sinker was added by Thomson. Illustration of echo sounding. ... Piano wire is a specialized type of wire made for use in piano and other musical instrument strings, as well as many other purposes. ...

About the same time he revived the Sumner method of finding a ship's place at sea, and calculated a set of tables for its ready application. He also developed a tide predicting machine. Thomas Hubbard Sumner (20 March 1807 – 9 March 1876) was a sea captain during the 19th century. ... This article is about tides in the ocean. ...

During the 1880s, Thomson worked to perfect the adjustable compass in order to correct errors arising from magnetic deviation owing to the increasing use of iron in naval architecture. Thomson's design was a great improvement on the older instruments, being steadier and less hampered by friction, the deviation due to the ship's own magnetism being corrected by movable masses of iron at the binnacle. Thomson's innovations involved much detailed work to develop principles already identified by George Biddell Airy and others but contributed little in terms of novel physical thinking. Thomson's energetic lobbying and networking proved effective in gaining acceptance of his instrument by The Admiralty. This article is about the navigational instrument. ... Magnetic deviation is the error induced in a compass by local magnetic fields, which must be allowed for if accurate bearings are to be calculated. ... For other uses, see Iron (disambiguation). ... Steamer New York in c. ... Binnacle (before 18th century bittacle, through Span. ... George Biddell Airy Sir George Biddell Airy FRS (July 27, 1801–January 2, 1892) was an English mathematician and astronomer, Astronomer Royal from 1835 to 1881. ... The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy. ...

Scientific biographers of Thomson, if they have paid any attention at all to his compass innovations, have generally taken the matter to be a sorry saga of dim-witted naval administrators resisting marvellous innovations from a superlative scientific mind. Writers sympathetic to the Navy, on the other hand, portray Thomson as a man of undoubted talent and enthusiasm, with some genuine knowledge of the sea, who managed to parlay a handful of modest ideas in compass design into a commercial monopoly for his own manufacturing concern, using his reputation as a bludgeon in the law courts to beat down even small claims of originality from others, and persuading the Admiralty and the law to overlook both the deficiencies of his own design and the virtues of his competitors'.

The truth, inevitably, seems to lie somewhere between the two extremes.^[23]

Charles Babbage had been among the first to suggest that a lighthouse might be made to signal a distinctive number by occultations of its light but Thomson pointed out the merits of the Morse code for the purpose, and urged that the signals should consist of short and long flashes of the light to represent the dots and dashes. Babbage redirects here. ... Eddystone Lighthouse, one of the first wavewashed lighthouses For other uses, see Lighthouse (disambiguation). ... 1922 Chart of the Morse Code Letters and Numerals Morse code is a method for transmitting telegraphic information, using standardized sequences of short and long elements to represent the letters, numerals, punctuation and special characters of a message. ...

Electrical standards

Thomson did more than any other electrician up to his time to introduce accurate methods and apparatus for measuring electricity. As early as 1845 he pointed out that the experimental results of William Snow Harris were in accordance with the laws of Coulomb. In the Memoirs of the Roman Academy of Sciences for 1857 he published a description of his new divided ring electrometer, based on the old electroscope of Johann Gottlieb Friedrich von Bohnenberger and he introduced a chain or series of effective instruments, including the quadrant electrometer, which cover the entire field of electrostatic measurement. He invented the current balance, also known as the Kelvin balance or Ampere balance (SiC), for the precise specification of the ampere, the standard unit of electric current. Sir William Snow Harris (April 1, 1791 - January 22, 1867) was an English electrician. ... Charles Augustin de Coulomb (born June 14, 1736, Angoulême, France - died August 23, 1806, Paris, France) was a French physicist. ... An electrometer is an electrical instrument for measuring electric charge or electrical potential difference. ... Johann Gottlieb Friedrich von Bohnenberger (1765-1831) was born at Simmozheim, Württemberg. ... The ampere balance (also current balance or Kelvin balance) is an electromechanical apparatus used for the precise measurement of the SI unit of electric current, the ampere. ... “Accuracy” redirects here. ... For other uses, see Ampere (disambiguation). ... Standardisation or standardization (sometimes abbreviated s13n), in the context related to technologies and industries, is the process of establishing a technical standard among competing entities in a market, where this will bring benefits without hurting competition. ... The former Weights and Measures office in Middlesex, England. ... Electric current is the flow (movement) of electric charge. ...

In 1893, Thomson headed an international commission to decide on the design of the Niagara Falls power station. Despite his previous belief in the superiority of direct current electric power transmission, he was convinced by Nikola Tesla's demonstration of three-phase alternating current power transmission at the Chicago World's Fair of that year and agreed to use Tesla's system. In 1896, Thomson said "Tesla has contributed more to electrical science than any man up to his time."^[24] For other uses, see Niagara Falls (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Power station (disambiguation). ... Direct current (DC or continuous current) is the continuous flow of electricity through a conductor such as a wire from high to low potential. ... Power line redirects here. ... Nikola Tesla (1856-1943)[1] was a world-renowned Serbian inventor, physicist, mechanical engineer and electrical engineer. ... City lights viewed in a motion blurred exposure. ... One-third scale replica of Daniel Chester Frenchs Republic, which stood in the great basin at the exposition, Chicago, 2004 The Worlds Columbian Exposition (also called The Chicago Worlds Fair), a Worlds Fair, was held in Chicago in 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher...

Geology and theology

Statue of Lord Kelvin; Belfast Botanic Gardens.

Thomson remained a devout believer in Christianity throughout his life: attendance at chapel was part of his daily routine,^[25] though he might not identify with fundamentalism if he were alive today.^[26] He saw his Christian faith as supporting and informing his scientific work, as is evident from his address to the annual meeting of the Christian Evidence Society, 23 May 1889.^[27] Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2120x2816, 2830 KB) Summary Lord Kelvins statue in Botanic park, Belfast Licensing I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2120x2816, 2830 KB) Summary Lord Kelvins statue in Botanic park, Belfast Licensing I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ... The Palm House Belfast Botanic Gardens is a public park in Belfast, Northern Ireland. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      Christianity is... Look up fundamentalism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Christian Evidence Society is a UK evangelical organisation founded in 1870, particularly concerned with the relationship between religion and science. ... is the 143rd day of the year (144th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1889 (MDCCCLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ...

One of the clearest instances of this interaction is in his estimate of the age of the Earth. Given his youthful work on the figure of the Earth and his interest in heat conduction, it is no surprise that he chose to investigate the Earth's cooling and to make historical inferences of the earth's age from his calculations. Thomson believed in an instant of Creation but he was no creationist in the modern sense.^[28] He contended that the laws of thermodynamics operated from the birth of the universe and envisaged a dynamic process that saw the organisation and evolution of the solar system and other structures, followed by a gradual "heat death". He developed the view that the Earth had once been too hot to support life and contrasted this view with that of uniformitarianism, that conditions had remained constant since the indefinite past. He contended that "This earth, certainly a moderate number of millions of years ago, was a red-hot globe ... ."^[29] Earth as seen from Apollo 17 Modern geologists consider the age of the Earth to be around 4. ... THIS IS A FACT Creation is a doctrinal position in many religions and philosophical belief systems which maintains that a single God, or a group of or deities is responsible for creating the universe. ... Creationism is a religious belief that humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe were created in their original form by a deity or deities (often the Abrahamic God of Judaism, Christianity and Islam), whose existence is presupposed. ... The laws of thermodynamics, in principle, describe the specifics for the transport of heat and work in thermodynamic processes. ... This article is about the Solar System. ... For other uses, see Life (disambiguation). ... Uniformitarianism, in the philosophy of science, is the assumption that the natural processes operating in the past are the same as those that can be observed operating in the present. ...

After the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species in 1859, Thomson saw evidence of the relatively short habitable age of the Earth as tending to contradict an evolutionary explanation of biological diversity. He noted that the sun could not have possibly existed long enough to allow the slow incremental development by evolution — unless some energy source beyond what he or any other Victorian era person knew of was found. He was soon drawn into public disagreement with Darwin's supporters John Tyndall and T.H. Huxley. In his response to Huxley’s address to the Geological Society of London (1868) he presented his address "Of Geological Dynamics", (1869)^[30] which, among his other writings, set back the scientific acceptance that the earth must be of very great age. For other people of the same surname, and places and things named after Charles Darwin, see Darwin. ... The 1859 edition of On the Origin of Species First published in 1859, The Origin of Species (full title On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life) by British naturalist Charles Darwin is one of the pivotal... This article is about evolution in biology. ... Biodiversity or biological diversity is a neologism and a portmanteau word, from bio and diversity. ... Sol redirects here. ... This article is about evolution in biology. ... Queen Victoria (shown here on the morning of her ascension to the Throne, 20 June 1837) gave her name to the historic era The Victorian era of the United Kingdom marked the height of the British Industrial Revolution and the apex of the British Empire. ... John Tyndall. ... Thomas Huxley Thomas Henry Huxley F.R.S. (May 4, 1825 - June 29, 1895) was a British biologist, known as Darwins Bulldog for his defence of Charles Darwins theory of evolution. ... Huxley may refer to one of: Thomas Henry Huxley, British biologist, supporter of Darwin and inventor of the term agnosticism Leonard Huxley, British writer and editor, son of Thomas Henry Leonard Huxley Australian physicist Aldous Leonard Huxley, British writer, son of Leonard Sir Julian Sorell Huxley, British biologist and author...

Thomson ultimately settled on an estimate that the Earth was 20-40 million years old. Shortly before his death however, Becquerel's discovery of radioactivity and Marie Curie's studies with uranium ores provided the insight into the 'energy source beyond' that would power the sun for the long time-span required by the theory of evolution. Antoine Henri Becquerel (December 15, 1852 – August 25, 1908) was a French physicist, Nobel laureate, and one of the discoverers of radioactivity. ... Radioactivity may mean: Look up radioactivity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about the chemist and physicist. ... Uraninite is a uranium-rich mineral with a composition that is largely UO2 (uranium oxide), but which also contains UO3 and oxides of lead, thorium, and rare earths. ... This article is about biological evolution. ...

Limits of classical physics

In 1884, Thomson delivered a series of lectures at Johns Hopkins University in the United States in which he attempted to formulate a physical model for the aether, a medium that would support the electromagnetic waves that were becoming increasingly important to the explanation of radiative phenomena.^[31] Imaginative as were the "Baltimore lectures", they had little enduring value owing to the imminent demise of the mechanical world view. The Johns Hopkins University, founded in 1876, is a private institution of higher learning located in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. ... Look up aether, ether in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Electromagnetic radiation is a propagating wave in space with electric and magnetic components. ... For other uses, see Radiation (disambiguation). ...

In 1900, he gave a lecture titled Nineteenth-Century Clouds over the Dynamical Theory of Heat and Light^[32]. The two "dark clouds" he was alluding to were the unsatisfactory explanations that the physics of the time could give for two phenomena: the Michelson-Morley experiment and black body radiation. Two major physical theories were developed during the twentieth century starting from these issues: for the former, the Theory of relativity; for the second, quantum mechanics. Albert Einstein, in 1905, published the so-called "Annus Mirabilis Papers", one of which explained the photoelectric effect and was of the foundation papers of quantum mechanics, another of which described special relativity. The Michelson-Morley experiment, one of the most important and famous experiments in the history of physics, was performed in 1887 by Albert Michelson and Edward Morley at what is now Case Western Reserve University, and is considered by some to be the first strong evidence against the theory of... As the temperature decreases, the peak of the black body radiation curve moves to lower intensities and longer wavelengths. ... Two-dimensional analogy of space-time curvature described in General Relativity. ... For a less technical and generally accessible introduction to the topic, see Introduction to quantum mechanics. ... “Einstein” redirects here. ... Einstein, in 1905, when he wrote the Annus Mirabilis Papers The Annus Mirabilis Papers (from Latin, Annus mirabilis, for extraordinary year) are the papers of Albert Einstein published in the Annalen der Physik Scientific journal in 1905. ... For a less technical and generally accessible introduction to the topic, see Introduction to special relativity. ...

Pronouncements later proven to be false

Like most scientists of his day, he is known for making some embarrassing mistakes in terms of predicting the future of technology.

In 1895, as president of the Royal Society, Kelvin is quoted as saying, "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible,"^[33] proven false a mere eight years later with the flight of Orville and Wilbur Wright's Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk in 1903. In 1897, he predicted that "Radio has no future;" ^[34] while the popularity of radio did not appear in his lifetime (it was not until the 1920s and 30s that it attained any degree of popularity), the statement was nevertheless proven false. First flight, December 17, 1903. ... The Wright Flyer (often retrospectively referred to as Flyer I and occasionally Kitty Hawk) was the first powered aircraft designed and built by the Wright brothers. ... Kitty Hawk is a town located in Dare County, North Carolina. ...

Other work

A variety of physical phenomena and concepts with which Thomson is associated are named Kelvin:

Always active in industrial research and development, he was a Vice-President of the Kodak corporation. A Kelvin material is a viscoelastic material having the properties both of elasticity and viscosity. ... A diagram of the Kelvin water dropper. ... A Kelvin wave is a wave in the ocean or atmosphere that balances the Earths Coriolis force against a topographic boundary such as a coastline. ... A KHI on the planet Saturn, formed at the interaction of two bands of the planets atmosphere Kelvin-Helmholtz instability can occur when velocity shear is present within a continuous fluid or when there is sufficient velocity difference across the interface between two fluids. ... The Kelvin-Helmholtz mechanism is an astronomical event that occurs when the surface of a star or a planet cools. ... Look up si, Si, SI in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see Kelvin (disambiguation). ... The Kelvin transform is a device used in classical potential theory to extend the concept of a harmonic function by allowing the definition of a function which is harmonic at infinity. This technique is also used in the study of subharmonic and superharmonic functions. ... In fluid mechanics, Kelvins Circulation Theorem states In an inviscid, barotropic flow with conservative body forces, the circulation around a closed curve moving with the fluid remains constant with time[1]. The theorem was developed by William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin. ... A Kelvin bridge is a measuring instrument invented by William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin. ... The phrase research and development (also R and D or, more often, R&D), according to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, refers to creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use... A vice president is an officer in government or business who is next in rank below a president. ... Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE: EK) is a large multinational public company producing photographic equipment. ...

Honours

• Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1847.
  • Keith Medal, 1864.
  • Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize, 1887.
  • President, 1873–1878, 1886–1890, 1895–1907.

• Fellow of the Royal Society, 1851.
  • Royal Medal, 1856.
  • Copley Medal, 1883.
  • President, 1890–1895.

• Knighted 1866.

• Baron Kelvin, of Largs in the County of Ayr, 1892. The title derives from the River Kelvin, which passes through the grounds of the University of Glasgow. His title died with him, as he was survived by neither heirs nor close relations.

• Knight Grand Cross of the Victorian Order, 1896.

• One of the first members of the Order of Merit, 1902.
• Privy Counsellor, 1902.

• First international recipient of John Fritz Medal, 1905.
• He is buried in Westminster Abbey, London next to Isaac Newton.

The memorial of William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, University of Glasgow

The Royal Society of Edinburghs Building on the corner of George St. ... The Keith Medal is a prize awarded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotlands national academy, for a scientific paper published in the societys scientific journals, preference being given to a paper containing a discovery, either in mathematics or earth sciences. ... The Fellowship of the Royal Society was founded in 1660. ... The Royal Medals of the Royal Society of London were established by King George IV. They were further supported with certain changes to their conditions, by King William IV and Queen Victoria. ... The Copley Medal is a scientific award for work in any field of science, the highest award granted by the Royal Society of London. ... For other uses, see Knight (disambiguation) or Knights (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Baron (disambiguation). ... Largs (grid reference NS203592) is a burgh on the Firth of Clyde in North Ayrshire, Scotland, about 33 miles (53 km) from Glasgow. ... The traditional counties of Scotland are historic and cutural divisions of Scotland. ... Ayrshire (Siorrachd Inbhir Àir in Scottish Gaelic) is a region of south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. ... The Kelvin is Glasgows second river after the River Clyde. ... Queen Victoria founded the Royal Victorian Order. ... The Order of Merit is a British and Commonwealth Order bestowed by the Monarch. ... Her Majestys Most Honourable Privy Council is a body of advisors to the British Sovereign. ... The John Fritz Medal, referred to as the highest American award in the engineering profession, is presented each year for scientific or industrial achievement in any field of pure or applied science. ... The Collegiate Church of St Peter, Westminster, which is almost always referred to by its original name of Westminster Abbey, is a mainly Gothic church, on the scale of a cathedral (and indeed often mistaken for one), in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Sir Isaac Newton FRS (4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727) [ OS: 25 December 1642 – 20 March 1727][1] was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, and alchemist. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 533 pixelsFull resolution (3504 × 2336 pixel, file size: 4. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 533 pixelsFull resolution (3504 × 2336 pixel, file size: 4. ...

Corporate name

The Kelvinator Corporation was founded in 1914 in Detroit, Michigan. This name was very suitable for a company that manufactured ice-boxes and domestic refrigerators. Kelvinator Appliance ad from 1951 Kelvinator is an appliance company since 1994 owned by Electrolux of Sweden. ... Detroit redirects here. ... The Ice Box is a 5,010-seat multi-purpose arena in Lincoln, Nebraska. ... The inside of a fridge Domestic refrigerators (usually shortened to fridge) are amongst the most common electric applicances in the world, for instance being present in 99. ...

See also

• Kelvin water dropper
• Kelvin sensing
• Kelvin equation
• Weaire-Phelan structure for a solution to the Kelvin problem regarding partitioning space.

A diagram of the Kelvin water dropper. ... Four-terminal sensing (4T sensing) is an electrical impedance measuring technique that uses separate pairs of current-carrying and voltage sensing electrodes to make more accurate measurements than traditional two-terminal (2T) sensing. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... The Weaire-Phelan structure is a complex 3-dimensional structure. ...

References

Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 184th day of the year (185th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Bibliography

Kelvin's works

• Hörz, H. (2000). Naturphilosophie als Heuristik?: Korrespondenz zwischen Hermann von Helmholtz und Lord Kelvin (William Thomson). Basilisken-Presse. ISBN 3-925347-56-9. 
• Thomson, W. (1882-1911). Mathematical and Physical Papers. (6 vols) Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-05474-5. 
• - (1912). Collected Papers in Physics and Engineering. Cambridge University Press. ISBN B0000EFOL8. 
• Thomson, W. & Tait, P.G. (1867). Treatise on Natural Philosophy. Oxford. 
• Wilson, D.B. (ed.) (1990). The Correspondence Between Sir George Gabriel Stokes and Sir William Thomson, Baron Kelvin of Largs. (2 vols), Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-32831-4. 

Biography, history of ideas and criticism

• Buchwald, J.Z. (1977). "William Thomson and the mathematization of Faraday's electrostatics". Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences 8: 101-136. 
• Burchfield, J.D. (1990). Lord Kelvin and the Age of the Earth. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-08043-9. 
• Cardoso Dias, D.M. (1996). "William Thomson and the Heritage of Caloric". Annals of Science 53: 511-520. 
• Chang, H. (2004). Inventing Temperature: Measurement and Scientific Progress. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-517127-6. 
• Gooding, D. (1980). "Faraday, Thomson, and the concept of the magnetic field". British Journal of the History of Science 13: 91-120. 
• Gossick, B.R. (1976). "Heaviside and Kelvin: a study in contrasts". Annals of Science 33: 275-287. 
• Gray, A. (1908). Lord Kelvin: An Account of His Scientific Life and Work. London: J. M. Dent & Co. 
• Green, G. & Lloyd, J.T. (1970). Kelvin's instruments and the Kelvin Museum. Glasgow: University of Glasgow. ISBN 0-85261-016-5. 
• Kargon, R.H. & Achinstein, P. (eds.) (1987). Kelvin's Baltimore Lectures and Modern Theoretical Physics; Historical and Philosophical Perspectives. Cambridge Mass.: MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-11117-9. 
• King, A.G. (1925). Kelvin the Man. London: Hodder & Stoughton. 
• King, E.T. (1909). Lord Kelvin's Early Home. London: Macmillan. 
• Knudsen, O. (1972). "From Lord Kelvin's notebook: aether speculations". Centaurus 16: 41-53. 
• Lindley, D. (2004). Degrees Kelvin: A Tale of Genius, Invention and Tragedy. Joseph Henry Press. ISBN 0-309-09073-3. 
• McCartney, M. & Whitaker, A. (eds) (2002). Physicists of Ireland: Passion and Precision. Institute of Physics Publishing. ISBN 0-7503-0866-4. 
• May, W.E. (1979). "Lord Kelvin and his compass". Journal of Navigation 32: 122-134. 
• Munro, J. (1891). Heroes of the Telegraph. London: Religious Tract Society. 
• Murray, D. (1924). Lord Kelvin as Professor in the Old College of Glasgow. Glasgow: Maclehose & Jackson. 
• Russell, A. (1908). Lord Kelvin. London: Blackie. 
• Sharlin, H.I. (1979). Lord Kelvin: The Dynamic Victorian. Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 0-271-00203-4. 
• Smith, C. & Wise, M.N. (1989). Energy and Empire: A Biographical Study of Lord Kelvin. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-26173-2. 
• Thompson, S.P. (1910). Life of William Thomson: Baron Kelvin of Largs. London: Macmillan. 
• Tunbridge, P. (1992). Lord Kelvin: His Influence on Electrical Measurements and Units. Peter Peregrinus: London. ISBN 0-86341-237-8. 
• Wilson, D. (1910). William Thomson, Lord Kelvin: His Way of Teaching. Glasgow: John Smith & Son. 
• Wilson, D.B. (1987). Kelvin and Stokes: A Comparative Study in Victorian Physics. Bristol: Hilger. ISBN 0-85274-526-5. 

Peter Achinstein is a Professor of Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University. ...

External links

Wikisource has original works written by or about:

William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

William Thomson

• Kelvin Society of Glasgow
• Lord Kelvin Online
• Lord Kelvin Exhibit: Image and Reality
• Lord Kelvin's Patents
• Heroes of the Telegraph at Project Gutenberg
• O'Connor, John J; Edmund F. Robertson "William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.  
• Horses on Mars, from Lord Kelvin
• Humorous website devoted to the "worship" of Lord Kelvin
• William Thomson: king of Victorian physics at Institute of Physics website
• Measuring the Absolute: William Thomson and Temperature, Hasok Chang and Sang Wook Yi (PDF file)
• Mathematical and physical papers. Volume I (PDF copy from gallica.bnf.fr)
• Mathematical and physical papers. Volume II (gallica)
• Mathematical and physical papers. Volume III (gallica)
• Mathematical and physical papers. Volume V (Internet Archive)
• Reprint of papers on electrostatics and magnetism (gallica)
• Elements of natural philosophy : Part I (gallica)
• Treatise on natural philosophy (Volume 1)(Internet Archive)
• Treatise on natural philosophy (Volume 2)(Internet Archive)
• The molecular tactics of a crystal (Internet Archive)
• Baltimore lectures on molecular dynamics and the wave theory of light (Internet Archive)