OF
THE
MATH.STAT.
LIFE OF LORD KELVIN
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO
ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
TORONTO
THE LIFE
OF
WILLIAM THOMSON
BARON KELVIN OF LARGS
BY
SILVANUS P. THOMPSON
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. I
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN S STREET, LONDON
1910
6-
MATH-STAT.
K3T5
STAT.
UBRARY
Utinam caetera naturae phaenomena ex principiis
mechanicis eodem argumentandi genere derivare licet.
NEWTON,
PhiL Nat. Principia Mathematica (Praef.).
PREFACE
THIS Biography was begun in June 1906 with the
kind co - operation of Lord Kelvin, who himself
furnished a number of personal recollections and
data. His death in December 1907 affected the
project of the work by necessarily extending its
scope to present a much more comprehensive
account of his career than the sketch originally
planned. The mass of letters, diaries, and other
documents which he left became available for filling
in the outlines, and the task of arrangement and
selection from these greatly extended the period of
preparation.
The sympathy which has been so universally
felt for Lady Kelvin in her prolonged illness and
gradual recovery has manifested itself in many
ways ; and various friends have lightened for
the author the responsibility of dealing with
the available materials out of which to frame an
authentic record of Lord Kelvin s long and strenuous
career.
Thanks are due to many relations and scientific
friends of Lord Kelvin, who have generously placed
vii
viii LIFE OF LORD KELVIN
at the author s disposal letters covering every period
of Lord Kelvin s life. Amongst the many who have
thus aided him, the author ventures to mention in par
ticular Dr. and Mrs. James T. Bottomley, Mr. James
Thomson, and Miss Mary Hancock Thomson, the
Misses King, Mrs. Ramsay MacDonald, Miss Jessie
Crum, Miss May Crum, Mrs. Tait, Miss Andrews,
Mrs. FitzGerald, Mrs. Hopkinson, Sir Edward Fry,
Sir James Fender, Prof. G. F. Barker, and Miss
Jane Barnard. Frau Ellen von Siemens has with
great generosity furnished a long series of letters
written to her lamented father Excellenz H. von
Helmholtz. Madame Mascart has similarly sup
plied others written to the late M. Mascart. Lord
Rayleigh and Sir George Darwin each placed at
the author s disposal a very large number of letters,
many of them of great scientific interest, and of
which a selection only is printed here. Of the long
series of letters which passed from 1846 to 1903
between Lord Kelvin and Sir George Stokes, none
have been inserted in the present work, save isolated
extracts of the year 1896. Sir Joseph Larmor,
who edited for publication the two volumes of
Stokes s Memoirs and Scientific Correspondence, has
prepared these letters for publication in a separate
volume which it is now proposed to amplify by
including selections from Lord Kelvin s other
scientific correspondence, along with excerpts from
his diaries and unpublished manuscripts. Hence
PREFACE
IX
the author has deliberately omitted many letters of
great scientific value, giving rather such as seemed
to possess a more general interest.
With grateful thanks the author acknowledges
his indebtedness for advice and help during the
writing and printing of the book to Mr. James
Thomson, Miss Mary Hancock Thomson, Dr. and
Mrs. Bottomley, the Misses King, and Mr. J. D.
Hamilton Dickson, all of whom have assisted either
in criticism or in proof-reading. The last-named
in particular, as an old pupil of Lord Kelvin and a
Fellow of Peterhouse, possesses a unique fund of
knowledge, which he has unstintingly placed at the
author s disposal, correcting innumerable points of
detail.
Four veteran contemporaries of Lord Kelvin in
his Cambridge days Professor Frederick Fuller,
Professor Hugh Blackburn, the Rev. Canon Gren-
side, and the Rev. J. A. L. Airey were so good as
to furnish reminiscences of that time. Alas ! while
these sheets have been passing through the press
the Rev. J. A. L. Airey. Professor Blackburn, and
Professor Fuller have all passed away.
An intimate family narrative written by Lord
Kelvin s eldest sister, Mrs. David King, who died
in 1896, now edited by her daughters, has just
been published. It gives a picture of the life,
from childhood to adolescence, of Lord Kelvin as
a member of a singularly gifted and harmonious
x LIFE OF LORD KELVIN
family. The author of the present work has
purposely abstained from trenching on that narrative,
possessing, as it does, an intrinsic value of its own,
quite apart from the information it affords of Lord
Kelvin s early years.
It has been the author s desire to let documents
and letters speak as far as possible for themselves ;
and if he has not always been able to avoid letting
his own views tinge these pages, he has at least
endeavoured to avoid attributing to others that
which is only his own. Doubtless there are many
of Lord Kelvin s former pupils who will find gaps
in the presentation of his life and character, as
must needs be when the author can himself claim
no nearer association than that of disciple. But the
disciple of one who was himself conspicuously faith
ful in little things, must at least try to be faithful.
The peculiar and affectionate admiration, amount
ing in some almost to worship, which characterizes
those who had the high privilege of that more
intimate association, spreads far beyond their circle
to the disciple. Let it be hoped that the affectionate
admiration which he too shares may not have warped
his judgment.
The late Professor Ayrton kindly gave the author
permission to appropriate extracts from his article
on " Kelvin in the Sixties," in which he narrated
his own experiences when a member of Lord
Kelvin s enthusiastic volunteer laboratory corps.
PREFACE
XI
In dealing with Lord Kelvin s contributions to
Geology, to Mathematics, and some other depart
ments of knowledge, the author has had to rely
greatly upon the judgment of others. In this par
ticular connexion he gratefully acknowledges help
given by Professor J. W. Gregory, Professor A. E.
H. Love, Professor George Forbes, and Professor
J. A. Ewing. Professor Andrew Gray, formerly
pupil, then assistant, lastly successor of Lord Kelvin
in the Chair of Natural Philosophy at Glasgow,
has very kindly permitted the author to appropriate
the extracts on pp. 651-653 which relate to Lord
Kelvin s lectures to his students ; and he has helped
the author in various other ways in relation to Lord
Kelvin s work in the University.
Miss Agnes G. King has kindly furnished the
portrait - photograph reproduced in Plate XIII;
Professor J. D. Cormack the original photographs
for Plates VIII, X, and XV; and Professor Edgar
Crookshank that for Plate XIV.
To the proprietors of Punch the author acknow
ledges the special permission given to reprint the
extracts from poems given on pp. 576 and 610.
To the proprietors of the Daily Graphic similar
thanks are due for the sketch-portrait of p. 899.
The author gladly acknowledges the services of
his assistant Mr. Ernest W. Moss in the pre
paration of the Bibliography and the verification
of references.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
CHILDHOOD, AND UPBRINGING AT GLASGOW
PAGES
Birth, June 26, 1824, i ; Thomsons of Ballynahinch, County Down, i ;
James Thomson, LL.D., of Belfast, and his Family, 2 ; Migra
tion to Glasgow as Professor of Mathematics, 6 ; Boyhood of
William Thomson, 7 ; Matriculation, at age of 10, into
Glasgow University, 8 ; Gains Medal for Mathematical Essay on
the Figure of the Earth, 9 ; Reminiscences of Old Glasgow
College Days, n ; Prof. J. Pringle Nichol, 12; Visits to Paris
and Frankfort, 15 ; Fourier s Book and Faraday Fire, 17.
APPENDIX : The Visit to Frankfort, 20 ; the Thomson gens at
>w, 21 . . . . . ; 1-22
CHAPTER II
CAMBRIDGE
Enters St. Peter s College, Cambridge, April 6, 1841, 23 ; Remin
iscences of Canon Grenside, 25 ; First Paper to the Cambridge
Mathematical Journal, 25 ; Tutors, Cookson and Hopkins, 27 ;
Rooms in College, 28 ; Letters to his Father and Sister, 29 ;
Sage Advice from Home, 29 ; Boating, 31 ; A Party at
Hopkins s, 32 ; Thomson buys a Boat, 36 ; Gains the
Gisborne Scholarship, 40 ; Papers for the Cambridge Mathe
matical Journal, 41 ; Gains a Mathematics Prize, 46 ; Falls
under the Fascination of Music, 47 ; Prof. James Thomson s
Ambition, 48 ; A Cambridge Diary, 49 ; Joins the Peterhouse
Boat, 58 ; Rowing Reminiscences, 59 ; Wins the Colquhoun
Silver Sculls, 61 ; Foundation and Rise of the Cambridge
University Musical Society, 69 ; Rev. J. A. L. Airey s
Reminiscences, 74 ; Hopkins s Reading Party at Cromer, 78 ;
xiv LIFE OF LORD KELVIN
PAGES
Projects Series of Essays on the Mathematical Theory of Elec
tricity, 83 ; The Senate-House Examination, 90 ; Results of
the Senate-House and Smith s Prize Examinations, 97 ; Parkin
son s Pace, 98 ; Prizes, 109 ; Reminiscences of the Senate- House
Examination, no . . . . . 23-112
CHAPTER III
POST-GRADUATE STUDIES AT PARIS AND PETERHOUSE
Termination of Degree Course, 113 ; Green s Essay, 114; Travels to
Paris, 114; Introductions and Studies in Paris, 1 16 ; Meets Liou-
ville, 117 ; Meets Regnault, 122 ; Enters Regnault s Laboratory,
124; Dynamical Notions and Ideas about Electricity, 130; Studies
Clapeyron s Paper, 132; Returns to Cambridge, 134; Meets
Faraday, 134 ; Elected a Foundation Fellow of Peterhouse, 134 ;
Assumes Editorship of the Cambridge Mathematical Journal^ 135 ;
Establishes Consistency between the Laws of Coulomb and
Discovery of Faraday, 141 ; Contribution to B.A. 1845 Meet
ing, 144 ; Letters to Faraday, 146 ; Communicates Principle of
Electrical Images to Liouville, 151; Appointed College Lecturer in
Mathematics at Peterhouse, 156 ; Vacancy of Natural Philosophy
Chair at Glasgow, 160 . . . . . 113-160
CHAPTER IV
THE GLASGOW CHAIR
The Chair of Natural Philosophy, 161 ; Collecting Testimonials, 163 ;
Announces his Candidature, 164 ; Other Candidates, 167 ;
Thomson s Testimonials, 167 ; The Appointment, 184 ; Inaugural
Dissertation, De Caloris Distributione, 184 ; The Father s
Delight, 188 . . . . . 161-189
CHAPTER V
THE YOUNG PROFESSOR
Enters upon the Duties of the Chair, 190 ; The Introductory Lecture,
190; Inadequateness of the Apparatus for Teaching, 193:
Improvement of his Department, 194 ; Original Work, 196 :
Elected a Member of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow, 198 ;
CONTENTS xv
PAGES
Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 199 ; Summer
Attractions and Work, 199 ; Visit to Paris and Switzerland, 205 ;
Scientific Work, 207 ; Death of Professor James Thomson, 209 ;
First Communication to the Royal Society, 210 ; Views on Dia-
magnetic Forces, 214; Tour in Scandinavia, 218; Revisits
Paris, 223 ; Work on Thermodynamics, 225 ; Fellowship of the
Royal Society, 226 ; Absolute Units, 227 ; The Dissipation of
Energy, 230 ; Marriage to Margaret Crum, 233 ; President of
Physical Section of B.A., 234 ; Trip to the Mediterranean, 238.
APPENDIX : Introductory Lecture to the Course on Natural
Philosophy, 239 . . . . . 190-251
CHAPTER VI
THERMODYNAMICS
James Prescott Joule, 253 ; Heat and Temperature, 253 ; " Caloric,"
254 ; Carnot s Treatise, 256 ; Clapeyron s Exposition, 259 ;
Joule s Investigations, 260; The B.A. 1847 Meeting, 263;
Joule s Version, 263 ; Thomson s Version, 264 ; Thomson s
Doubts, 266; "Energy," 271 ; Carnot s Coefficient, 273; The
Lowering of the Freezing-Point of Water by Pressure, 275 ;
Carnot does not deny the Transformation of Heat into Work, 277 ;
Rankine and Clausius, 277; Thomson s Work, 280; The Laws
of Equivalence and Transformation, 281 ; The Joule-Thomson
Effect, 285 ; Maxwell s Demons, 286 ; Helmholtz and The
Conservation of Energy, 287 ; Thomson s Contribution, 289 ;
Controversy over Various Claims, 291 ; Experimental Investiga
tions, 292 ; Available Energy, 293 . . . 252-295
CHAPTER VII
THE LABORATORY
A Lack of Necessary Data, 296 ; The First Physical Laboratory for
Students, 297 ; Early Laboratory Work, 298 ; Thomson and
Stokes, 299 ; Explanation of Foucault s Experiments on Spectra,
300 ; Laboratory Work, 304 ; Advice sought by Clerk Maxwell,
304 ; Illness of Mrs. Thomson, 305 ; Scientific Work, 306 ;
Visit to Creuznach, 308; Meets Helmholtz, 310; Friday
Evening Discourse at the Royal Institution, 312 ; The Bakerian
Lecture, 317; Return to Creuznach and Schwalbach, 320;
Letters to Helmholtz, 321 ; Thomson and Thackeray, 324 296-324
xvi LIFE OF LORD KELVIN
CHAPTER VIII
THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH : FAILURE
The Electric Telegraph, 326 ; Submarine Cables, 327 ; Transmission
of Signals by Cables, 328 ; The Law of Squares, 329 ; Methods
of Signalling, 332 ; Foundation of the Atlantic Telegraph Com
pany, 338 ; Thomson s Anomalous Position, 338 ; How the
Cable was made, 339 ; Research on the Conductivity of Copper,
340; Whitehouse s Inventions, 341; The Cable Squadron,
Agamemnon and Niagara, 343 ; Breaking of the Cable, 344 ;
Discussions of Cable Problems, 344 ; Thomson s Galvanometer,
347 ; Conductivity of the Cable, 349 ; First Testing Laboratory
in Factory, 351 ; 1858 : Preliminary Trip, 353 ; The Expedition
sails, 357 ; Paying-out begun, 358 ; Return to Queenstown,
358 ; A Second Attempt succeeds, 359 ; Reminiscences of a
Member of the Electrical Staff, 360 ; Wild Rejoicings, 365 ;
Thanks from the Directors, 366 ; How not to work a Cable,
367 ; Termination of Whitehouse s Appointment, 368 ; Enfeeble-
ment of the Cable, 372 ; Failure of the Cable, 374 ; Whitehouse
and the Directors, 374 ; The Last Signals, 384 ; Committee of
Inquiry, 385 ; Thomson s Welcome in Glasgow, 388 ; A Noble
Speech, 389 . .. . ,; ... 325-396
CHAPTER IX
STRENUOUS YEARS
Impracticability of Electric Power, 397; Atmospheric Electricity,
399 ; Letters to Helmholtz, 401 ; Volunteer Rifle Movement,
405 ; Discourse at the Royal Institution on Atmospheric Elec
tricity, 407 ; Tait appointed to the Natural Philosophy Chair at
Edinburgh, 408 ; Thomson and Fleeming Jenkin, 409 ; Thom
son s Accident, 412; The Green- Books, 415; The Electrical
Standards Committee, 4*7 ; Donald MacFarlane, 420 ; Proposed
Treatise on Natural Philosophy, 421 ; Helmholtz s Reminiscences
of a Visit to Glasgow, 429 ; Honorary Degree at Cambridge,
437 ; The Rede Lecture, 437 ; Honorary Degree at Oxford, 443 ;
Prof. Ayrton s Reminiscences, 445 . . 397-446
CONTENTS xvii
CHAPTER X
THE EPOCH-MAKING TREATISE
PAGES
Existing Books, 447 ; Tait, 449; Origin of the Collaboration, 451 ;
Skeleton of the Treatise, 454 ; Suggestion of a Shorter Elementary
Work, 457 ; Correspondence, 458 ; Progress, 465 ; The Glasgow
Pamphlet. 466 ; Prof. Ayrton s Recollections, 466 ; Delays, 467 ;
Publication of Volume I., 467; Characteristic Features of the
Book, 468 ; A German Translation, 47 1 ; Inadequate Remunera
tion of the Authors, 473 ; A Second Edition, 474 ; Abandonment
of further Volumes, 474 ; Appreciation of Tait, 478 ; The Unseen
Universe, 479 ; Reprint of Newton s Principia, 480 . 447-480
CHAPTER XI
THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH : SUCCESS
Reviving the Project, 481 ; Improvements since 1858, 482 ; The
Cable, 482 ; The Great Eastern, 482 ; The Expedition, 484 ;
Faults and Failure, 485 ; Attempt to Raise the Cable, 486 ;
Work for a New Cable, 489 ; Laying Commenced, 491 ; The
Great Eastern Telegraph and Test -Room Chronicle, 492 ; Com
pletion, 493 ; Rejoicings, 493 ; Raising the 1865 Cable, 495 ;
Completion of the 1865 Cable, 496; Latimer Clark s and
Collett s Experiments, 496 ; Congratulations, 498 ; Honours,
499 > City of London Banquet, 501 ; Freedom of the City of
Glasgow, 502 ; Knighthood Conferred, 505 ; Lecture at the
Glasgow Athenaeum, 506 .... 481-508
CHAPTER XII
LABOUR AND SORROW
The Structure of Matter, 509 ; Helmholtz s Paper on Vortex Motion,
510 ; First Paper on Vortex-Atoms, 513 ; Letter to Helmholtz,
513; Other Work, 519; The " Replenisher," 521; Death of
Faraday, 522; Incidents at the B.A. Meeting of 1867, 523;
Determination of "z/," 524; Lady Thomson s Health, 526;
Project of the French Atlantic Cable, 527; Lady Thomson
grows worse, 531 ; Death of Lady Thomson, 532 ; Lady
Thomson s Poems, 533 . . . . 509-5 34
xviii LIFE OF LORD KELVIN
CHAPTER XIII
THE GEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSY
PAGES
The Solidity of the Earth, 535 ; Age of the Earth, 535 ; His Claim
as a Naturalist, 536 ; The Age of the Sun s Heat and the
Secular Cooling of the Earth, 537; " Uniformitarianism," 537:
Doctrine of Uniformity Refuted, 540 ; Geological Time, 540 :
Challenges the Huttonian Theory, 541 ; Huxley s Address to
the Geological Society, 544 ; Thomson s Reply, 547 . 535-55 1
CHAPTER XIV
LATER TELEGRAPHIC WORK I THE SIPHON RECORDER
The French Atlantic Cable, 552 ; Thomson and Varley and Jenkin,
552 ; Lord Stanley, Rector of Glasgow University, 553 ; First-
fruits of the Inventions, 554; The "Thomson Experimental
Scholarships," 555; Parliamentary Representation, 557; An
Offer from Cambridge, 558 ; The Cambridge Chair, 563 ; "The
Size of Atoms," 566 ; Removal of Glasgow University to Gilmore
Hill, 568 ; The Siphon Recorder, 570 ; First Exhibition in
England, 575 ; The Lalla Rookk, 580 ; Admiralty Committee
on the Design of Ships of War, 583 . . . 552-584
LIST OF PLATES
VOLUME I
PLATE FACE PAGE
I. Lord Kelvin (1897). Photogravure by T. and R.
Annan and Sons .... Frontispiece
II. Quadrangle of the Old Glasgow College . . 8
III. Facsimile of Letter of William Thomson, announcing
his candidature for the Chair of Natural Philosophy,
1846 ...... 164
IV. Professor William Thomson, 1852. Photogravure
by Emery Walker . . . .232
V. Margaret Thomson (circa 1858). Photogravure by
Emery Walker ..... 308
VI. Sir William Thomson, 1870. Photogravure by
Emery Walker from photograph by Fergus . 446
VII. Sir William Thomson, 1870. From photograph by
Fergus . -534
VIII. New University Buildings, Gilmore Hill, Glasgow.
From photograph by Stewart . . .568
VOLUME II
IX. Lord Kelvin and his Compass. Photogravure by
T. and R. Annan and Sons . . Frontispiece
X. Sir William Thomson s Yacht Lalla Rookh . . 6 1 6
XI. Netherhall, Largs. From photograph by Stewart, of
Largs . *:*i . . . . 649
xx LIFE OF LORD KELVIN
PLATE KACE PAGE
XII. Lord Kelvin s Lecture-Room in the University of
Glasgow . .735
XIII. Sir William Thomson. From photograph by Miss
Agnes G. King, 1888 . . . . 880
XIV. Lord Kelvin visiting the Kananaskis Falls, N.W.
Canada, 1897. From photograph by Prof. Edgar
M. Crook shank .... . 1003
XV. Lord Kelvin s Last Lecture, 1899 . . ._ loir
XVI. Lord and Lady Kelvin in their house at Eaton Place,
1906. Photogravure by Emery Walker from
photograph by Russell . ., v . : . 1188
CHAPTER I
CHILDHOOD, AND UPBRINGING AT GLASGOW
WILLIAM THOMSON, Baron Kelvin of Largs, was
born in Belfast on the 26th of June 1824. The
family was of Scottish origin. Three brothers,
named respectively James, John, and Robert
Thomson, migrated from the Lowlands of Scot
land about the year 1641 in the troublous times of
the civil wars. From papers in the possession of
the family it appears that John Thomson settled in
County Down at Ballymaglave (or Ballymaglymph),
and for nearly two hundred years his descendants
continued to occupy a farm called Annaghmore, near
Spa Well, Ballynahinch. On his house, on a quoin
of a building now used as a barn, James Thomson,
grandson of John Thomson, cut his name, with the
date 1707. This James Thomson had three sons,
two of whom (John and Robin) emigrated about
1755 to Buffalo Valley, New York State, and set
up as millers. The second son, James, the grand
father of Lord Kelvin, born about 1738, remained
at Ballynahinch. On 2Qth September 1768 he
married Agnes Nesbitt, who bore him three sons,
VOL. i B
2 LIFE OF LORD KELVIN CHAP.
also named Robert, John, and James, and three
daughters. At this date the Thomsons owned
about one-quarter of the township of Ballymaglave.
According to tradition they nearly all bore the
character of being " religious, moral, patriotic,
honest, large, athletic, handsome men."
James Thomson, the father of Lord Kelvin, was
born at Annaghmore on the i3th of November
1786. He was a man of remarkable abilities and
strong character. Brought up on the land as a farm
labourer, and receiving from his father the rudi
ments of education, he studied for himself, without
either skilled teachers or good text-books, the art
of dialling, making for himself a sun-dial, and also a
night-dial to tell the time by the position of one
of the stars of Ursa Major. The following story
is told of him :
It was when he was about eleven or twelve years old,
that one day the boy was observed to be working with a
slate and a bit of stone for a pencil. In the evening he
was again working by the light of a handful of shavings
he had brought in to make a blaze until the candle should
be lighted. After a little he exclaimed to his eldest
brother Robert, who was thirteen years his senior, " Robert,
I have made a discovery. I have found out how to make
dials for any latitude." " Can you show me ? " said the
brother. " Yes," said he ; and he showed him so clearly
that his brother quite understood the method.
Three of James Thomson s dials are now in the
possession of his grandson, James Thomson, of
Newcastle-on-Tyne. On them his name is spelt
Thompson, in the fashion more common in England.
i CHILDHOOD AND UPBRINGING 3
Indeed the name is thus spelt throughout in the
old family Bible belonging to his father, and in other
documents. It is believed that James Thomson
changed the spelling when he found that in Scotland
the name was usually written without the letter/.
In view of the intellectual abilities displayed by
James Thomson, his father allowed him to go as a
pupil to a small school l kept by Dr. Samuel Edgar
(minister of the " Secession " Presbyterian Church
at Ballynahinch) at Ballykine, near his native place,
to learn classics and mathematics ; and his abilities
were such that he was soon promoted to be assistant
teacher. It was his intention to become a Presby
terian minister. Nothing shows more clearly the
force of character of the youth than the determined
way in which he strove for self- improvement.
While still teaching at Ballynahinch during the
summers to gain his livelihood, he for four con
secutive years, from 1810 to 1814, spent the six
winter months studying at the University of
Glasgow, the session of which lasted from November
to May. He graduated M.A. in 1812. Nearly
eighty years afterwards, Lord Kelvin, on the
occasion of his installation as Chancellor of the
University, related the story of his father s ex
perience as follows :
" There were no steamers, nor railways, nor
motor cars in those days. Can the young persons
of the present time imagine life to be possible
1 See a small book, Three Ballynahinch Boys, by Rev. Wm. L Patton,
Belfast, 1880.
4 LIFE OF LORD KELVIN CHAP.
under such conditions ? My father and his comrade
students, chiefly aspirants for the ministry of the
Presbyterian Synod of Ulster, and for the medical
profession in the north of Ireland, had to cross the
Channel twice a year in whatever sailing craft they
could find to take them. Once my father was
fortunate enough to get a passage in a revenue
cutter, which took him from Belfast to Greenock
in ten hours. Another of his crossings was in an
old smack whose regular duty was to carry lime,
not students, from Ireland to Scotland. The
passage took three or four days, in the course of
which the little vessel, becalmed, was carried three
times round Ailsa Craig by flow and ebb of the tide.
" At the beginning of his fourth and last Uni
versity session, 1813-1814, my father and a party
of fellow-students, after landing at Greenock, walked
thence to Glasgow. On their way they saw a
prodigy a black chimney moving rapidly beyond
a field on the left side of the road. They jumped
the fence, ran across the field, and saw to their
astonishment Henry Bell s Comet then not a year
old travelling on the river Clyde between Glasgow
and Greenock. Their successors, five years later,
found in David Napier s steamer Rob Roy (which
in 1818 commenced plying regularly between Belfast
and Glasgow) an easier, if a less picturesque and
adventurous, way between the College of Glasgow
and their homes in Ireland."
James Thomson s persistency in his studies met
with reward : on the completion of his course in
i CHILDHOOD AND UPBRINGING 5
Glasgow in 1814 he received the appointment of
teacher of Mathematics at the Royal Belfast Aca
demical Institution, at first in the school depart
ment, being the first person to hold that post. His
duties comprised the teaching of geography as well as
arithmetic and book-keeping. In 1815 he was made
Professor of Mathematics in the College depart
ment. I n the summer of 1 8 1 7 he was married to Miss
Margaret Gardner, daughter of a Glasgow merchant,
who at the time of the war of American Independence
had gone as a volunteer to fight on the British side.
James and Margaret Thomson had seven children :
Elizabeth, born in 1819, married the Rev. David
King, LL.D., and died in 1896 ; Anna, born in
1820, married William Bottomley, and died in 1857 ;
James (LL.D., F.R.S. and Professor of Engineering,
first in Belfast, afterwards in Glasgow), born in 1822
and died in 1892 ; William (Lord Kelvin), born in
1824; John, born in 1826 and died in 1847; Mar
garet, born in 1827 and died in 1831 ; and Robert,
born in 1829 and died in Australia in 1905.
The Thomsons lived in College Square East,
Belfast, in a house still standing, which was built
by Professor Thomson. Here all his children,
except the eldest daughter, were born. On the
flags in front of the house the future Lord Kelvin
and his brother James used to whip their tops, and
doubtless became familiar with the phenomenon of
the precession of a spinning body.
11 One of my earliest memories," said Lord
Kelvin, " of those old Belfast days, is of 1829, when
6 LIFE OF LORD KELVIN CHAP.
the joyful intelligence came that the Senate of the
University of Glasgow had conferred on my father
the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws." But the
joy of the family was overshadowed by a sad event.
Margaret Thomson died in 1830, when her eldest
daughter was but twelve years old, and her youngest
boy only twelve months. The future Lord Kelvin
was but six, and his brother James eight. Their
father devoted himself to his children, taking the
two boys to sleep in his bedroom, and teaching them
himself, save that James and William both went for
a few months to the writing-school in Belfast. He
taught them in particular the use of the globes, and
began Latin with them on the Hamiltonian system
of teaching. The elder daughter Elizabeth com
piled in later years a deeply interesting narrative of
the family life, giving many details.
In 1832 the chair of Mathematics at Glasgow
became vacant by the retirement of Professor
James Millar, who had held it for thirty-six years ;
and it was offered to James Thomson, who migrated
with his young family to Glasgow in that year.
He still kept the education of his sons in his hands.
He was indeed a gifted person a good scholar,
capable on emergency of teaching the University
classes in classics ; and that his mathematical know
ledge was sound is attested by the text-books he
produced including one on Differential and Integral
Calculus books ] which, though now superseded,
1 James Thomson s books cover a considerable range. In 1819 he pub
lished in Belfast A Treatise on Arithmetic in Theory and Practice, a small
, CHILDHOOD AND UPBRINGING 7
long held their own for clear exposition. He also
made several original contributions to mathematics.
James Thomson was known as a successful teacher.
It was his practice to catechise his class at the
beginning of each lecture on the work of the
preceding day, viva voce questions being passed
with energy and enthusiasm from bench to bench,
a practice which his distinguished son was wont at
times to pursue. The following anecdote is narrated
by Sir William Ramsay, whose father was at one
time a member of Thomson s class.
One day Professor Thomson asked a certain
Highland student, "Mr. M Tavish, what do you
understand by a point ? " The answer was,
"It s just a dab!" Again, in the course of con
struction of a diagram, the question came, " What
should I do, Mr. M Tavish?" "Tak a chalk in
your hand." " And what next?" "Draw a line."
Professor Thomson complied, and, pausing, said,
" How far shall I produce the line ? " "Ad
infinitum" was the astonishing reply.
The boys James and William were allowed to
attend informally their father s lectures at the
University, and also those of some of the other
duodecimo volume, which had a veiy large sale. The seventy-second edition
of this work, revised by his two sons and edited by Sir William Thomson, was
published by Messrs. Longmans in 1880. In 1827 he produced two books,
an Introduction to Modern Geography and The Romance of the Heavens. In
1830, while still in Belfast, he issued the Elements of Plane and Spherical
Trigonometry, with a chapter on the " First Principles of Analytical
Geometry," of which a fourth edition was published in London in 1844.
In 1834 he edited an edition of Euclid j Elements of Geometry, and wrote an
excellent Algebra. He was the first systematically to apply Homer s method
of solving algebraic equations to the arithmetical extraction of cube roots and
roots of higher powers. In 1831 appeared his Introduction to the Differential
and Integral Calcttlus, of which a second edition was printed in 1848.
8 LIFE OF LORD KELVIN
CHAP.
professors. They often repeated at home in a
juvenile way the demonstrations they attended.
In the year 1834 or 1835 they made themselves
electrical machines and Leyden jars, and administered
electric shocks to their friends, and later they con
structed voltaic batteries.
In October 1834 both James and William
Thomson matriculated in the University of Glas
gow, James being then twelve years of age, and
William ten years and three months. The Matricu
lation Album for the session 1834-35 bears the
entry :
Gwlielmus Thomson, filius natus secundus Jacobi,
Math. Prof, in Academia Glasguensi.
The signature is in William Thomson s own
handwriting ; the remaining words in that of
William Ramsay, Professor of Humanity, in whose
Class he and his elder brother were duly enrolled.
The University classes in those days consisted
largely of raw Highland lads, sent from the farm
to train as theological students, of all ages from
fourteen to twenty-four, with others intending to
follow law or medicine. The following excerpt by
Dr. H. S. Carslaw from The Book of the Jubilee,
1901, gives a picture of interest respecting young
William Thomson :
" It is somewhat difficult to picture the classes of
the time. It is equally surprising to find that at
the end of his first winter s work he carried off two
prizes in the Humanity Class; this before he was
eleven. In the next session we follow him to the
QUADRANGLE OK THE OLD GLASGOW COLLEGE.
The rooms used as Laboratory of Natural Philosophy are in the dark corner on the right.
i UPBRINGING AT GLASGOW 9
classes of Natural History and Greek we wonder
what the present occupants of these chairs would
say to a stripling under twelve who presented him
self at their lectures and his name figures in both
prize-lists. Sympathy is not lacking for the hard-
worked schoolboy of to-day ; but what would the
child of twelve think of the holiday task of trans
lating Lucian s Dialogues of the Gods, with full
parsing of the first three dialogues ! This is the
piece of work for which William Thomson, Glasgow
College, receives a prize in May 1836. Next
session we find the two brothers together in the
Junior Mathematical Class, of the Junior Division
of which they are first and second prizemen. They
appear again at the head of the list for the Monthly
Voluntary Examinations on the work of the class
and its applications. Proceeding to the Senior
Mathematical Class in 1837-38, they again stand
at the top, nor have they failed to present them
selves for the Voluntary Examinations. William
is not satisfied with this class, but in addition
receives the second prize in the Junior Division of
Prof. Robert Buchanan s Logic Class, having as a
near rival John Caird, Greenock, the name of our
late revered Principal now appearing in the lists."
At the close of the session of 1838-39 William
and James Thomson took the first and second
places as prizemen in Natural Philosophy, and in
that of 1839-40 William gained the class prize in
Astronomy, and was awarded a University medal
for an essay On the Figure of the Earth, the
io LIFE OF LORD KELVIN CHAP.
manuscript 1 of which is still extant. In 1840-41
his name appears once more in the prize -lists,
being this time fifth prizeman in the Senior
Humanity Class under Professor Lushington. Lord
Kelvin loved to recur to his student days, and to
his teachers of that time Ramsay, Lushington,
Thomas Thomson, Meikleham, and J. P. Nichol.
In 1907, at the annual dinner of the London
" Glasgow University Club," he spoke of the fine
1 It is a carefully-written bound volume of eighty-five pages, undated.
On the title-page are two quotations :
. . . Mount where science guides ;
Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides ;
Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,
Correct old time, and regulate the sun.
Principio terram, ne non aequalis ab omni
Parte foret, inagni speciem glomeravit in orbis.
A brief preface states that the writer has consulted Airy s Tracts and his
Encyclopedia Metropolitana article, and the works of Poisson, Pentecoulant,
Pratt, and Laplace. He claims some originality, but fears that more extended
reading may show that he has been anticipated. The contents are grouped
under four heads : Physical Theory, Disturbance in the Moon s Action,
Geodetic Measures, and Pendulum Observations. In the last part a demon
stration is given of Clairaut s Theorem. The mathematical handling through
out is marvellous. The manuscript bears three notes of later dates ; one
added December 16, 1844; one dated " Gt. Eastern at sea, Sep. 13/66";
a third signed " K. Oct. 21, 1907." After fifty-seven years, and only two
months before his death, Lord Kelvin had returned to the study of his
boyhood ! Prof. A. E. H. Love, who has kindly examined the text of the
Essay, writes : "It is a truly astonishing performance for a boy of sixteen. It
has many affinities with Airy s Tract, but in the arrangement of the matter,
and still more in the general tone, it is quite different from Airy s Tract.
Airy s writing was meant to be a textbook for the use of students ; Thomson
writes like a scientific investigator. Besides this, his work is more complete.
For example, he includes the ellipticity deduced from the constant of pre
cession combined with Laplace s hypothetical law of density in the interior of
the Earth, and he includes the perturbation of the Moon s motion in longitude.
These things are omitted by Airy. Even Pratt in his Treatise omits the
perturbation of the moon s motion in longitude. I don t wonder that Lord
Kelvin took the Essay about with him, because it had everything in it in a
small compass. But the methods which he used in it are not those which he
adopted afterwards in Thomson and Tail. Evidently he learned two things
about the subject at a later date the use of the potential function and the
use of the method of harmonic analysis. He had a large share in developing
these more powerful methods, and it seems clear that when he came to the
task of printing an account of the theory he preferred them to the methods
which he had used in his youth."
i UPBRINGING AT GLASGOW n
all-round education afforded by his University in
the good old days, and praised its width. " A
boy," he said, " should have learned by the age of
twelve to write his own language with accuracy
and some elegance ; he should have a reading
knowledge of French, should be able to translate
Latin and easy Greek authors, and should have
some acquaintance with German. Having learned
thus the meaning of words, a boy should study
Logic." And then he went off in praise of the
advantages of some knowledge of Greek. " I
never found that the small amount of Greek I
learned was a hindrance to my acquiring some
knowledge of Natural Philosophy." Assuredly not
in his case. Yet he confessed one day that if he
could only find his old note-book with the notes of
Lushington s lectures on the Greek play in his last
year of study at Glasgow, its pages would show
that his mind was often wandering away to matters
of Natural Philosophy ! He retained a very lively
memory of his early University days, and delighted
to recall them. Well did he remember " the little
tinkling bell in the top of the college tower, calling
college servants and workmen to work at six in
the morning ; the majestic tolling of the great bell
wakening at seven the professors (and students,
too, in the olden times when students lived in the
college) ; then, again, the lively little tinkling bell
calling the professors and students of Moral Philo
sophy and Senior Greek and Junior Latin at
half-past seven to work in their class-rooms.
12 LIFE OF LORD KELVIN CHAP.
" Woe to the student of Latin who reached the
door ten seconds after the quick little bell s last
stroke. He was shut out by the doorkeeper, un
failingly ruthless, by inexorable order, and had to
wend his way through the darkness to his lodging,
sorrowfully losing the happy hour s reading of Virgil
or Horace or Li vy with his comrades, under their
bright young Professor, William Ramsay, and
knowing that he had got an indelible black mark
against his name."
The then Professor of Natural Philosophy,
William Meikleham, had held the chair since 1803.
Though he can scarcely be accounted a distinguished
man, he yet had a sound knowledge of the older
branches of his science, and certainly succeeded
in arousing in his students an interest in physical
phenomena. He made them read the Mdcanique
analytique of Lagrange and the Mdcanique celeste
of Laplace, a task that would indeed have been
hard but for the excellent mathematical training
of Professor James Thomson. In the session of
1838-39 Meikleham broke down in health, and for
the remainder of that academic year his lectures
were shared between Professor Thomas Thomson
(Professor of Chemistry) and Professor John Pringle
Nichol (Professor of Astronomy). In the session
of 1839-40 Nichol gave all the Natural Philosophy
lectures after the first three weeks, and young
Wm. Thomson took the Senior Course of Natural
Philosophy under him. His note-book of the
lectures is still preserved. Nichol was a most
i UPBRINGING AT GLASGOW 13
accomplished man, of quick parts, with a keen eye
for recent advances in science, and a poetical
imagination. He fitted up his newly-built observa
tory with numerous pieces of apparatus of his own
possession, 1 particularly optical apparatus. He
showed his students the phenomena of diffraction
and the spectrum of the sun s light. He also pro
cured Daguerreotype apparatus, and in 1839 initiated
the brothers James and William Thomson into the
mystery of taking Daguerreotype photographs. He
taught William to take transits of the sun and stars
with the transit instrument in the old Macfarlane
Observatory. The summer of 1839 was in later
life described by Lord Kelvin as " a white era, an
era of brightness in my memory." Such was the
inspiring influence of the teachers 2 under whom he
drank in knowledge. Nichol had recently got hold
of a new book a pamphlet of some eighty pages
on Couples, and made his students write Christmas
essays on the Theory of Couples. It was Nichol,
too, who in 1840 brought to the notice of his eager
young student the Thdorie analytique de la chaleur,
of Fourier, which was destined to influence his whole
1 In the summer of 1840 he travelled to Munich on purpose to procure
some new instruments for his observatory. During part of this tour he and
Mrs. Nichol and their son (afterwards Professor John Nichol) were with the
Thomsons at Frankfort, as narrated at the end of this chapter.
3 The following extract from Lord Kelvin s inaugural address as Chancellor
in 1904 gives a grateful reference to his early teachers : " My predecessor in
the Natural Philosophy chair, Dr. Meikleham, taught his students reverence
for the great French mathematicians Legendre, Lagrange, and Laplace. His
immediate successor, Dr. Nichol, added Fresnel and Fourier to this list of
scientific nobles ; and by his own inspiring enthusiasm for the great French
school of mathematical physics, continually manifested in his experimental
and theoretical teaching of the wave theory of light and of practical astronomy,
he largely promoted scientific study and thorough appreciation of science in
the University of Glasgow."
I 4 LIFE OF LORD KELVIN CHAP.
career. Lord Kelvin himself gave me the following
account of the matter :
" The origin of my devotion to these problems
is that after I had attended in 1839 Michel s Senior
Natural Philosophy Class, I had become filled with
the utmost admiration for the splendour and poetry
of Fourier. Nichol was not a mathematician, and
did not profess to have really read Fourier, but he
was capable of perceiving his greatness and of
understanding what he was driving at, and of
making us appreciate it. I asked Nichol if he
thought I could read Fourier. He replied perhaps.
He thought the book a work of most transcendent
merit. So on the ist of May [1840], the very day
when the prizes were given, I took Fourier out of
the University Library ; and in a fortnight I had
mastered it gone right through it."
Fourier s Thdorie analytique de la chaleur had
appeared in Paris in 1822. In this work he set
himself to establish on a thorough basis of mathe
matical analysis the theory of the movement of heat
in bodies and between bodies. It is characterised
by the same extreme elegance of exposition which
distinguishes the writings of Laplace, Lagrange,
and Poisson in their treatment of other branches of
mathematical physics ; while its spacious verbiage
and refinement of style is such as to cause Clerk
Maxwell to pronounce it a great mathematical
poem. At the date of its appearance the applica
tion of the methods of analysis to Mechanics
and Astronomy was a comparative novelty ; and
i UPBRINGING AT GLASGOW 15
certainly no one before Fourier had had the hardi
hood to apply analysis to the movement of heat.
The success with which he built up, by patient
insight, the differential equations for the movement
of heat, in the several cases considered, was
equalled by his success in discovering the processes
for integrating them ; leading him not only to
establish the famous " Fourier Series " for the ex
pression of periodic quantities, but also to formulate
several new integrals of great importance in mathe
matical physics generally. Fourier s memoirs had
attracted but little attention in England, and his
work passed almost unrecognised until the events
now to be narrated.
William Thomson was already familiar with the
French language. He and his three brothers had
been taken in the summer of 1839 to London to
see the sights of the great city, and then on to Paris,
where they were left for about two months to learn
French, while their father and their elder sisters went
on for a tour round Switzerland and South Germany.
At Paris he frequented the Bibliotheque Royale in
order to read Laplace s Mdcanique celeste, in pre
paration for his University essay on the Figure of
the Earth. But for this training in French he
would scarcely have been able in a fortnight to
go through Fourier s work. It was a part of his
father s plan of educating his family that they should
acquire a mastery of German also. Accordingly he
determined to take his children for a summer re
sidence in Germany no light undertaking in those
1 6 LIFE OF LORD KELVIN CHAP.
days, when the facilities for travel were extremely
restricted. For two months the whole family took
lessons in German conversation. On May 21,
1840, the father with his six children started from
Glasgow. The eldest daughter Elizabeth was
almost 22, James 18, William 16, and the youngest
boy Robert only 1 1 years old. They travelled by
steamer to Liverpool, thence by train to London.
On the 25th they went to see the Queen drive to
Buckingham Palace. On the 26th the party visited
the Polytechnic to view the latest wonders, and the
same night left by steamer for Rotterdam. A note
in young Thomson s diary runs :
Reached the bar at the mouth of the Maas, near Brill,
at about 4^- o clock in the morning, where we had to lie
till 10. The vessel rolled greatly from side to side, but
the rolling was intermittent, as every two or three minutes
it calmed down and then rose again with perfect regularity.
This probably arose from two sets of waves of slightly
different lengths coming in in the same direction from two
different sources.
On the 28th they visited the Hague ; and the
diary adds a visit to the Museum to see a stuffed
mermaid ! Also a visit to a windmill at Delft,
where they criticised the primitive machinery.
Then they took a river steamer to Emmerich, and
thence by Dlisseldorf to Bonn, reading Peter Simple
on the deck, conversing with some acquaintances
on painting and animal magnetism, and landing at
Cologne to see the cathedral and purchase some
of J. M. Farina s eau veritable. They reached
i UPBRINGING AT GLASGOW 17
Frankfort-on-the-Main on June 16, and put up first
at the Wlirtemburgerhof. On June 19 they moved
into a house on the Promenade, near the Eschen-
heimer Thor, which house they furnished. They
remained here until August 2, when they left for
Baden. From there the two brothers James and
William went by themselves for a walking tour,
lasting some days, in the Black Forest. The whole
family returned to Glasgow on September 2. If
this astonishing expedition reveals the unique per
sonality of the elder Thomson, and the thoroughness
of his educational methods with his children, the
fact remains to be told that, so far as young William
Thomson was concerned, its principal object turned
out a failure. In his later life he used to tell with
whimsical glee how it was that he never became a
good German scholar.
" Going that summer," he said, " to Germany
with my father and my brothers and sisters, I took
Fourier with me. My father took us to Germany,
and insisted that all work should be left behind, so
that the whole of our time should be given to
learning German. We went to Frankfort, where
my father took a house for two months. The
Nichols had lodgings adjacent, and came in to
meals with us nearly every day. Now, just two
days before leaving Glasgow I had got Kelland s
book (Theory of Heat, 1837), and was shocked to
be told that Fourier was mostly wrong. So I put
Fourier into my box, and used in Frankfort to go
down to the cellar surreptitiously every day to read
VOL. i c
18 LIFE OF LORD KELVIN CHAP.
a bit of Fourier. When my father discovered it he
was not very severe upon me."
Kelland, in fact, had been misled by not com
prehending that a Fourier series may be expressed
either in a double series of sine and cosine terms,
or in a single series of either sines or cosines, by
appropriate assignment of epochs to the various
terms of the series. He had, therefore, hastily
concluded that, since many of the expansions of
functions given by Fourier are in series of sines or
cosines alone, they were " nearly all erroneous."
Thomson discovered, while at Frankfort, the cause
of the misunderstanding, and wrote thereupon an
article " On Fourier s Expansions of Functions in
Trigonometrical Series," giving a new demonstration
of the expansion, and pointing out the explanation
of the apparent discrepancy noticed by Kelland.
This article was subsequently published over the
pseudonymous signature " P. Q. R. " in the short
lived Cambridge Mathematical Journal, vol. ii., May
1841, and is reprinted as the first article in vol. i.
of Lord Kelvin s Mathematical and Physical Papers.
Lord Kelvin gave me, in 1906, the following account
of it : " I was filled with indignation at a statement
by Kelland that almost everything in Fourier was
wrong. When I wrote my paper my first pub
lished original paper for the Cambridge Mathe
matical Journal, my father sent it to Gregory.
Gregory had been beaten recently by Kelland in
the competition for the Edinburgh chair of Mathe
matics. Gregory thought the paper rather con-
i UPBRINGING AT GLASGOW 19
troversial, and sent it to Kelland. This was a
graceful act on Gregory s part, that he would not
put it into the Journal without referring it first to
Kelland. Kelland wrote back rather tartly, as if
piqued. Then my father and I went over the paper
and smoothed down a few passages that might have
offended Kelland s feelings. Kelland wrote 1 back
that he was charmed with the paper, and was quite
amiable. So then it was printed." As it appeared,
it was dated " Frankfort, July 1840, and Glasgow,
April 1841."
In the circle of University acquaintances in
Glasgow was one David Thomson, a cousin of the
great Faraday. David Thomson (B.A. 1839), of
Trinity College, Cambridge, took over the duties
of Professor Meikleham s chair from 1842 to 1845,
during the latter s illness. He subsequently held
the chair of Natural Philosophy at Aberdeen. He
wrote the article on " Acoustics " for the eighth
edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and died in
1880. By him William Thomson was, as he himself
expressed it, " inoculated with Faraday fire." He
indoctrinated the youthful student into Faraday s
then heterodox notions of electric action in a
medium. Hitherto the doctrines taught him re
specting electricity and magnetism had been on the
then accepted lines of Newtonian forces acting at
a distance, with all the weight of Poisson and
Laplace to support the analytical theory. Of the
1 The letters which passed, in February and March 1841, between
Gregory, Kelland, and James Thomson, were mostly preserved by him, and
were found amongst Lord Kelvin s correspondence.
20 LIFE OF LORD KELVIN CHAP.
Boscovichian theory of atoms as centres of force
acting at a distance he had learned from Nichol.
But now David Thomson inculcated the Faraday
conception of electric and magnetic forces acting
along curved lines in the medium, and the further
possibility of the screening of electric forces by
the interposition of a conducting sheet. At first
William Thomson rejected these notions, thinking
them incompatible with first principles, and argued
eagerly against Faraday s views. Ultimately he
was convinced, and ever afterwards retained the
most sincere admiration for Faraday and his work.
And so with the advent of April 1841 came to
an end William Thomson s sixth and last session as
a student in the University of Glasgow. He left
the University l without even taking a degree !
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER I.
THE VISIT TO FRANKFORT.
In the Memoir of John Nichol (Professor of English Literature
in Glasgow, 1862 to 1889), son of Professor J. P. Nichol, there
are some autobiographical notes, written in 1861, which throw
an interesting light upon the Thomson family, and, in particular,
upon the episode of the trip to Frankfort. John Nichol was then
seven years old. From these notes the following passages are
extracted :
1 Nevertheless he sat for the degree examinations at Glasgow. A certi
ficate, still preserved, reads as follows : " COLLEGE OF GLASGOW, April 22,
1839. William Thomson. Examined and approved for the Degree of A.B.
by us, Robert Buchanan, William Fleming, William Ramsay, E. L.
Lushington." At that date Thomson had not completed his fifteenth year.
He purposely abstained from applying for the formal conferment of the degree,
in order that he might not be prejudiced in entering as an undergraduate at
Cambridge.
i UPBRINGING AT GLASGOW 21
The day came when we started for Germany, my father, my
mother, and myself. . . . We went, I think, from Edinburgh to
Glasgow, and then to Liverpool, and then to London. ... I have no
memory of our embarkation. Light breaks upon one next at Ostend.
. . . We went to the Continent alone we three but our friends, the
Thomsons, had arranged to meet us on the way ; they spent some
considerable time with us on the Rhine, so I had better explain who
they were. Had I more leisure and a clearer memory, I think I
could write something about the Old College Court. The dingy old
place has for me some pleasant associations. . . . When we first
lived there, Hill had not begun to send forth his platitudes from the
chair, . . . nor the most illustrious of the Thomsons to make new
discoveries in electricity. . . . Members of that great gens literally
filled one-half of the chairs in the University. I will not venture
to say how many I have known. There was Tommy Thomson the
chemist ; William Thomson of Materia Medica ; Allen Thomson of
Anatomy, brother of the last ; Dr. James Thomson of Mathematics ;
William, his son, etc., etc. Old Dr. James was one of the best of
Irishmen, a good mathematician, an enthusiastic and successful
teacher, the author of several valuable school-books, a friend of my
father s, and himself the father of a large family, the members of
which have been prosperous in the world. They lived near us in the
court, and we made a pretty close acquaintanceship with them all.
Mrs. Thomson had died before her husband came to Glasgow ; but
there were two daughters, both clever, good talkers and sketchers,
one of them very pretty ; and four sons, in their order, James,
William, John, and Robert, a pleasant and happy group now
scattered far and wide. Dr. James came originally from the North
of Ireland, and, to some extent, combined the qualities of the two
races who are in that district fused together. He was laborious and
precise and acute, destitute of the inventive, but largely endowed
with appreciative faculties. Good-hearted, he was shrewdly alive to
his interest without being selfish, and would put himself to some
trouble, and even expense, to assist his friends. He was a stern
disciplinarian, and did not relax his discipline when he applied it to
his children, and yet the aim of his life was their advancement.
He was impressionable, if not impressible, like the most of Irishmen,
and was more tenacious of his impressions than most. He was
uniformly kind to me, and I owe him nothing but gratitude.
Of the sons I liked James the best. He was crotchety, and apt
to be sulky with those who would not enter into his crotchets ; here,
as far as I know, his faults end. He was steadfast, straightforward,
independent, quiet, unobtrusive, with more Scotch than Irish blood
in his veins, and yet it ran warmly enough for his friends, and at a
later period I had the honour to be one of them. His passion was
engineering ; he was always on the eve of inventing something that
was going to revolutionise trade. He used to show me lots of
models, and often when we were in Arran together he would walk
22 LIFE OF LORD KELVIN CHAP, i
out to try his boats or his wheels on the streams, as a chemist goes
to make an experiment that will test the worth or worthlessness of
years of toil, or the astronomer goes to look for the star whose place
he has predicted with the help of a million figures. I believe some
of those inventions were excellent, but there was always some
practical obstacle which prevented their bringing to the inventor
either the fame or the fortune they merited. James was an idealist
in his way.
John was an assiduous and successful student of medicine, and
died of a fever caught during his attendance on the hospital. . . .
We stayed some little time at Bonn. We lodged near the verge
of the town, where we met the Thomsons, and the younger boys and
I used to make little paper boats, and let them sail far away over
the roofs of the houses. . . . From Bonn, too, my father, with James
and Willy Thomson, went to walk for three days among the craters
of the district, and came home with their pockets full of specimens,
which James still preserves in his cabinet.
" It was upon a tranced summer night " that we sailed round the
corner of the Rhine which reveals the Siebengebirge, and came
gliding in to the island of Nonnenwerth. Clear and calm and fair
the memory of that night comes back to me from over all the years.
One by one the peaks appeared, and stood grandly above the quiet
stream, in the grey light which soon faded away beyond their
purpling crests. The moon stood out, a glorious crescent on the
ridge of Rolandseck, and a bright star led the host of heaven over
the brow of Drachenfels. . . .
We were on our way to Frankfort when this happened, and there
we spent the most considerable part of our time. I remember our
getting settled down somewhere into comfortable lodgings up one or
two stairs, and our meeting the Thomsons again. . . .
My father went alone to Vienna by Ratisbon and Passau,
returning by Innsbruck and the Tyrol and Munich. My mother
and I stayed three months at Frankfort ; the Thomsons came often
to see us, and we had other varieties enough to prevent us feeling
lonely. . . .
Frankfort was a pleasant place to live in then, whatever it may
be now. It had its romance old houses within, and green glades
without the walls ; and yet it was well furnished with all things
needful. I should be glad to return there and see if the cherries
taste as sweet as ever, if the environs are as luxuriant as when we
went out on an afternoon to see the Prince [Landgraf] of Homburg
drive round his park, or the streets as gay as when there was a rush
of lights at night.
CHAPTER II
CAMBRIDGE
ON April 6, 1841, William Thomson, then in his
seventeenth year, was formally entered at St. Peter s
College, Cambridge, as a student of the University.
The Admission Book entry is :
1841, April 6th, Gulielmus Thomson, Doctoris Jacobi
Thomson Filius, Scotus, ad mensam pensionarium ad-
mittitur.
He came into residence in October of the same year.
St. Peter s, or Peterhouse, to give it its ancient and
more familiar name, is not one of the great or wealthy
Colleges, but it has always maintained an honourable
tradition for scholarship of the best sort, and for an
intellectual activity that would do credit to a larger
and more richly endowed institution. In the forties
it ranked about fifth or sixth in size. Hence the
position of a pensioner of Peterhouse would in no
sense be regarded as inferior to that of one resident
in Trinity, King s, or St. John s. In the Tutor s
Book it is recorded that he was recommended to
the College by his father, who himself accompanied
him to Cambridge to introduce him to personal
friends* Challis, Gregory, Hopkins, and others.
23
24 LIFE OF LORD KELVIN CHAP.
Probably Professor James Thomson decided on the
choice of Peterhouse for his son because of the fame
of Hopkins, the mathematical coach, for whom he
had a great admiration.
For some reason Peterhouse had from this
period onwards a distinct following of Scottish
students. Thomson s famous colleague Tait entered
Peterhouse three years after he had left it ; and two
years later, it was to Peterhouse that Clerk Maxwell
came, though he migrated after one year to the
more highly endowed Trinity.
Of that period the present Master of Peterhouse
has written the following notice in the Cambridge
Review :
But Cambridge had a claim of her own upon Lord
Kelvin. She had possessed him during those incom
parable years of life through which a man of genius
passes, as through a golden gate into a region open only
to a few the region of great achievement.
When he came up to Peterhouse the Tutor of the
College was Henry Wilkinson Cookson, who had taken
his degree in 1832, and afterwards became Master. No
man could have served his College, and I may add
the University, more loyally and more effectively than
Cookson, who knew it both intus et in cute ; but there
could not be much intellectual affinity between him and
Thomson, as his private scientific tastes were mainly
biological.
On the other hand, Thomson was, as an undergraduate,
brought into immediate contact with Frederick Fuller,
afterwards Professor of Mathematics at Aberdeen, who
graduated only three years before himself, and sub
sequently succeeded Cookson as Tutor. He survives as
one of the oldest members of a College which owes him a
deep debt of gratitude ; and it was a rare pleasure to find
ii CAMBRIDGE 25
myself voting on the same side with him not very long
ago. But in the early forties an emanation of mathe
matical glory was already proceeding from our ancient
house, where William Hopkins, after graduating as far
back as 1829, had already become one of the most
successful private tutors known to the ancien regime, and
where his distinguished name and unsullied memory are
still justly revered. Tait and Steele, as again every one
knows, headed the Mathematical Tripos in 1852, and
both of them became Fellows in the following year.
The intimacy of Thomson and Tait, and the joint
production of their great book, therefore, do not belong to
their Cambridge years, though counting among the chief
glories of Peterhouse. Routh s year, 1854, when Clerk
Maxwell was second Wrangler, was another annus mira-
bilis for Peterhouse.
Canon Grenside, one of Thomson s contem
poraries at Peterhouse, has narrated how he first
met him at the wine- party given to freshmen by
Mr. Cookson the tutor, shortly after the opening
of the October term of 1841. William Thomson,
a slender, fair-haired youth, sat immediately opposite
me," writes the Canon. " I noticed him particularly
especially his youthful appearance. Of course no
words could be exchanged across the table in the
august presence of the College Tutor. We soon
became friends, and that friendship lasted to the
end of his distinguished life, though meeting at rare
intervals. He had not been settled in his rooms
for more than three days. . . . Two days after
wards it was currently reported in the College that
Thomson would be Senior Wrangler ! "
Thomson had scarcely entered Peterhouse when
his anonymous paper in defence of Fourier s
26 LIFE OF LORD KELVIN CHAP.
Expansions of Functions in Series appeared in
the Cambridge Mathematical Journal. The secret
soon leaked out ; and it became evident that here
was a student of unusual promise. In November
1841 he had a second article, 1 written in reality in the
previous April, giving a new proof of the generality
of Fourier s Solution of the Expansion in Series
a proof different from that already advanced by
Poisson. This was followed in 1842 by two more
papers in the Cambridge Mathematical Journal,
still signed " P. Q. R.," of a much more advanced
character.
Thomson s life at Cambridge differed little from
that of the earnest and active undergraduates of his
time, save perhaps in the intensity with which he
threw himself into everything with which he let
himself be occupied. He read, walked, boated, and
even indulged in occasional dances and more
occasional rides. The days during term time at
Peterhouse were filled with varied activities.
Thomson usually began his morning by a rapid
walk or run, before breakfast, around the College
Grove. Every day, almost without intermission,
summer and winter, he used to take a dip in the
waters of the Cam, sometimes making his way to
Byron s Pool for a plunge. Lithe in figure, and wiry
of constitution, he enjoyed other outdoor recreations,
particularly rowing. Athletics had not at that date
1 Copies of these two articles were sent in the New Year by James
Thomson to Kelland, who replied : " I have to return you my best thanks
for your kindness in sending me the papers of your son. I will only add
that the early genius displayed in these and in all his papers promises to rank
your son soon amongst the mathematicians of Europe. "
ii CAMBRIDGE 27
swelled to the overweening proportions of later
time, and occupied a more rational share in the life
and outlook of the University man. How Thomson
distinguished himself in play as well as in work we
shall see.
Thomson s tutor for the first term was Cookson.
In January 1842 he began to read with Fuller, but
he worked for one term, and through the long
vacation of 1842, without a tutor. After that he
had William Hopkins as his private coach, "an
excellent and sound mathematician and scientific
man," as Thomson described him sixty years after
wards. In the Cambridge of those days, as since,
the career of the student who was reading for the
Mathematical Tripos depended greatly on the
tutor or coach under whom he read. A tutor
who could impart method and enthusiasm to the
men working under him was sure to bring them
forward. And Hopkins, who was also a very
competent geologist, and who left his mark in more
than one department of physics, 1 was assuredly
capable of sympathising with the ardours of the
youthful Thomson. He had, moreover, himself
contributed to the investigation of a problem of
particular interest to Thomson, the theory of the
rigidity of the globe of the earth, an exceptionally
1 Hopkins had written in 1835 on Aerial Vibrations in Tubes. In the
years 1839 to 1842 he had no fewer than three memoirs in the Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society, on the Precession and Nutation of the
Earth in Relation to the Fluidity of its Interior, and on the Thickness of its
Crust. From 1843 to 1861 he wrote much on the theory of Glacier Motion,
and from 1852 to 1860 on Terrestrial Temperatures. He was President of
the British Association in 1855.
28 LIFE OF LORD KELVIN CHAP.
suitable guide, one would say, to direct the mathe
matical studies of the fervid youth.
Such letters as a young undergraduate writes to
his family from the University, even if filled with
the trivialities of the hour, throw much light not
only on the life of the time, but on the development
and character of the writer ; and to this the letters
of William Thomson are no exception. Happily a
very large number of these have been preserved, as
also those written to him by his father and his sisters,
and his letters to his widowed aunt, Mrs. Gall, who
at this period was housekeeper for Dr. James
Thomson in the lively family circle at No. 2, the
College, Glasgow.
On 2ist October he tells his sister Elizabeth how
he has been fortunate in getting comfortable rooms
in College a parlour, a bedroom, and a gyp s room.
(He has to explain afterwards that the name gyp is
derived from yv^, a vulture /) Then he has had to
make his own breakfast, succeeding very well,
except that he forgets whether to put in the coffee
after or before the water is boiling, so asks for the
proper directions ! Next he tells of the calls of the
tradespeople, and of the hairdresser who asks him
to contract for getting his " hair dressed at 2s. 6d.
a term very cheap"; which advantageous and
tempting offer he declines, considering that hitherto
his hairdressing has cost him only 2d. the half-
year. He is surprised at the way the gyp * lays his
1 This old famulus bore the name of Boning, and, to distinguish him from
other college gyps of the same gcns^ was always known as "Gentleman
Boning," because he always went about in a high hat, and wore gloves. He
ii CAMBRIDGE 29
table for breakfast and tea, and clears away the
things afterwards.
To his sister Anna, on 23rd October, he writes
telling of various events : of surplice-day at chapel ;
of his having gone to take wine" with Cookson
a solemn occasion ; of King s College Chapel, where
he is struck with the roof as a problem in the equi
librium of structures ; and he wants her to tell him
how much tea he must use to make a cupful.
On 26th October he writes his father that he
finds himself to have been partially anticipated by
Liouville in one of his papers. He has been told
by Cookson what books to read ; and he has joined
the Union. October 29th brings him a letter from
his father narrating his return journey, and advising
him as to personal economy. " You must keep up
a gentlemanly appearance, and live like others
keeping, however, rather behind than in advance."
He winds up by asking William for a solution of
the problem to find the centre of gravity of a
spherical triangle. William s reply gives an account
of Mr. Cookson s first " lecture " (on Euclid), in
which he laid down the University s ideas of
education as opposed to modern " diffusion -of -
useful-knowledge-society s ideas." He grieves that
in his rooms he has fifteen yards of bookshelves
used in after-years to relate that when he was conducting father and son for
the first time to Thomson s rooms he remarked, " Your son s very young, sir,
to be coming to college"; to which the father replied, "He maybe, but
you ll find he s very well prepared." Mr. J. D. Hamilton Dickson, Fellow
of Peterhouse, to whom Boning recounted this, has also told that when he
was at college the hairdresser Bendall was still alive, though in old age. It
was on his death that Shilleto wrote the poem "Ultimus Tonsorum," published
in the Cambridge Chronicle of June 26, 1875.
30 LIFE OF LORD KELVIN CHAP.
and only half a yard of books ; tells how his friend
Grenside advises him not to join the boat-club
because of the rowdy men in it ; mentions the
canvassing of votes for the President of the Union,
and how he has promised to vote for Hardcastle
because his opponent is a Johnian ; touches on
sundry mathematical problems, but has not yet
found a solution to the one sent him. A day
after, he writes again that he has received Chasles
book, where he finds another anticipation of his
theorems, but by a different method.
November I5th finds him writing again to his
father. Money matters are urgent ; he wants to
pay some bills at once so as to secure discounts.
He has been to a second " wine " with Gregory.
Then a message to his sister. "Anna says she
was rather amused at my using the word man so
much in my letters, but the reason is because I am
so much amused myself at the great use made of
it here. It is quite unprecedented to talk of going
to see a friend, or a student, or a person, but the
word used is universally man, and it certainly does
sound rather strange to hear them calling me a
man." " Letter-writing is nearly as fatiguing to me
as mathematics," he adds. And, indeed, he was
throughout his life a slow writer, laboriously penning
a large script in which he loved to imagine each indi
vidual letter to be distinct. His friend Scratchley 1
is thinking of migrating to Queens , and he himself
now raises the question whether, as the chances of
1 Arthur Scratchley, graduated from Queens College 1845.
ii CAMBRIDGE 31
a Fellowship at Peterhouse are limited, he had not
better also think of migrating elsewhere. His letter,
sputtered over with ink-specks, is written as a post
script explains with a quill pen, which he finds to be
used at the examinations, and therefore he " must get
into the habit of being able to write with them." A
few days later he writes to his sister Elizabeth :
I adventured myself to-day for the second time in a
funny (or funey or funney), i.e. a boat for one or two
people to row in. It is certainly rather a venture to go
in them, as we can hardly stand upright in them for fear
of upsetting them, they are so very light and narrow. I
can manage it quite well, however ; and, besides, I would
not care for an upset, except for my watch and the dis
grace. In this College, and in all the others, there is a
boat club which has one or more eight-oared racing
boats which go out very frequently to practise the crews
for the races. Our boat goes out every day, and will be at
the head of the river in the next races, now that I [!] have
come here, though it was not before. I have not joined
the club, however, as rowing for the races is too hard work
for getting on well with reading ; and, besides, the men
connected with the club are generally rather an idle set.
His father is glad he did not join the boat club.
William s next letter, of November 21, tells of his
work, reading for both Cookson and Hopkins, and
doing seventy lines of Prometheus Vinctus every
other day. It gives him very little trouble. He
has had the honour of a call one evening from Archi
bald Smith 1 and D. F. Gregory 2 both Fellows!
1 Archibald Smith, of Jordanhill, near Glasgow, of Trinity ; Senior
Wrangler, 1836 ; later a distinguished equity draughtsman of Lincoln s Inn ;
author of the Admiralty Manual on the Deviation of the Compass ; died 1872.
2 Douglas Farquharson Gregory, Trin. Coll. ; B.A., 1838 ; Fellow of
Trinity. 1840; author of Examples of the Processes of the Calculus; died
February 1844.
32 LIFE OF LORD KELVIN CHAP.
who had discussed mathematics and even worked
problems in his room. He narrates a festivity :
On Tuesday night I went to Hopkins s party. ... I
went in at about eight o clock, and was nearly among the
first. A few wrangling-looking men soon began to drop
in, and a great many freshmen, or raw materials for
manufacture. Any to whom I spoke said they were
going to read with Hopkins if, or as soon as, he would
take them. There were no less than three of our fresh
men present, besides myself, and one of our other men.
Later in the evening some ladies, and older gentlemen,
and among them Ansted of Jesus College, one of the
proctors, came in. Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins and a young
lady sang some glees, and Mr. Hopkins asked all of us
whether we performed on any instrument ; and when he
heard that we did not, he said he was very glad to hear
it. After music, conversation, and looking at a great
many beautiful prints, we adjourned into another room
for supper, which was in very splendid style.
On 6th December his father wrote to him :
" Recollect my invaluable maxim never to quarrel
with a man (but to waive the subject) about
religion or politics," and added much good advice
about wine-parties and avoidance of danger in
skating. The reply of i2th December deserves
summarizing : " I have gone to as few wine-parties
as I possibly could, and at any to which I have
gone there has not been the least approach to
excess. ... I have given no wine-parties, or indeed
any parties yet, but I suppose I must return some
of the invitations next term." " The separation of
the freshmen of this College into the two classes of
4 rowing men (pronounced rouing, and meaning
men who are fond of rows and * rowing parties)
II
CAMBRIDGE 33
and * reading men has very soon become distinct.
All my friends are among the latter class, and I am
gradually dropping acquaintance with the former as
much as possible. I find that even to know them
is a very troublesome thing if we want to read, as
they are always going about troubling people in
their rooms." . . . Then he discusses the migra
tion question : he has consulted Cookson how to
beat Scratchley if Scratchley stays on at Peter-
house ; the difficulty of choice of a college lies
in finding one with lay Fellowships. He has now
finished the "reading" of his first-year subjects,
Euclid, etc. " My anti- short -sight glasses are
getting on very well, and I certainly think I am
very much less short-sighted than I should be if
I did not use them." . . . " With regard to boat
ing, you need not be in the least afraid. As I do
not belong to the boat-club, I always row by myself
in a funny (or, as it is called, skulling, for Alex.
Crum s satisfaction), or at least go in a two-oared
boat, with some friend with whom I should other
wise be walking. With regard to rowing in funnies,
>I think it a very useful thing, as it gives variety
from mere walking, which alone is not the best
exercise, and we never meet anybody except those
with whom we go to row. Indeed, very few of the
dissipated men row at all, except in the College
boat, as they are always too much occupied, and
the only objection I see to rowing without joining
the club is the expense of going very often. I
mean, however, when the fine weather comes, to
VOL. I D
34 LIFE OF LORD KELVIN CHAP.
make application to you with regard to how often
I may take a boat." The letter closes with a dis
cussion of some accounts, and of the costs of wines.
Christmas he spends at Gainscolne Rectory with
Dr. Greenwood, the father of one of his fellow-
collegians. Thence he writes to tell his father of
Gregory s doings in finding the values of definite
integrals " in a very curious way by the separation
of symbols," and of a party at Challis s where he
had met Cayley, "who is to be Senior Wrangler
this year."
In an undated letter of this period William
writes :
Hopkins has now given me two examinations, and he
says, as the result, that he sees I know the principles very
well, but that though I could probably read the subjects
as well, or better, by myself, I may perhaps be the better
of a tutor for a term or two before I read with him
(which will be next October), to drill me in writing out
a little. He says that if I stay up in the long vacation
(which, he says, will be a great advantage) he will prob
ably be able to direct my reading sufficiently so that I
shall not require a tutor. . . . After the fourth-year men
go away I am to get other rooms in the old court, which
will be much better than these which I am in. ... All
the rooms in the old court are much cheaper in proportion
to their excellence in the old court than in the new.
In the New Year of 1842 Dr. James Thomson
writes to William, enclosing two bankers drafts,
and cross-questioning his son rather severely about
his accounts of expenditure, the items of which do
not tally with the total. He urges the importance
of his acquiring "accurate business habits," and
ii CAMBRIDGE 35
points the moral by recounting the financial straits
of a colleague at Glasgow who had expended money
recklessly on instruments, and was deeply in debt.
William replies on January i5th explaining the
items of the accounts. Bits of Cambridge news
follow. Cookson and Hopkins have decided that
Fuller is to be his tutor for the next term. "All
the great mathematical men here are very much
against the tutoring system. ..." " You should
get for the library a new French work on the Difl.
Calc. by Moigno, which Gregory says is the best he
has seen, and De Morgan s Difl. Calc. (in sixpenny
Nos. by the Society for the Dif. of Useful Know
ledge), which is very queer, but contains a great
many good ideas." The criticism of De Morgan
at this stage by the undergraduate, then in his
eighteenth year, is curiously suggestive. A day or
two later he writes again to his father asking him
to send him his Essay (on the figure of the Earth ;
see p. 9), also his Fourier, Poisson s Mdcanique,
and Peacock s Examples, "and as many books of a
lighter kind as you choose, as my library is so very
scanty that I shall almost be obliged to buy books
to fill the shelves." Then he tells how he has been
measuring his strength in a preliminary way with
the wranglers of the year. The Senate-house
examinations being just over, he sat down to most of
the papers to see how many questions he a mere
freshman could do. " I found, on comparing with
what some of the men had done who went in, that
I got on tolerably well, especially in some of the
36 LIFE OF LORD KELVIN CHAP.
problem papers, though of course I missed a great
deal from not being very well up with many of
the subjects/
The safe arrival of the books was acknowledged
in a letter of February 6th. He has got into new
rooms. He has been rowing two or three times
with Hemming. 1 He has got on well with Fuller,
getting three papers a week from him to work ; on
low subjects so far, but next week to be on Analytic
Geometry of three dimensions. On February igih
he sends home a long letter, with a surprise. Along
with another man he has bought a boat for rowing,
built of oak, as good as new, for seven pounds, the
price new being twenty - four. The boat was
decorated in blue and gold, and called the Nautilus.
The boat which we have got is made for only one
person, and so we shall go down by ourselves on alternate
days to row between two o clock and four. I shall go
down often along with Hemming who has a funny of his
own. He is a very hard-reading and steady man, and
will certainly be a very desirable acquaintance. He is
very fond of rowing, but will not pull in the College boat
on account of the kind of men of which the clubs consist
usually. For his boat, which he takes by the year, he had
to pay twelve pounds for this year, which is the first he
has had her, and will have to pay six pounds a year
afterwards, as long as he keeps her, so you see we have
got a wonderful bargain. I have been going on reading
steadily, about eight hours a day, and getting up perfectly
regularly a little before six o clock.
He adds that he thinks he may get a Gisborne
scholarship, worth ^30 a year. His father replied,
1 George Wirgman Hemming, of St. John s; Senior Wrangler in 1844;
Fellow; later Q.C. and Official Referee. Died in 1905.
ii CAMBRIDGE 37
expressing surprise at not having been consulted
about the purchase of the boat, and saying roundly
that he thinks his son has been taken in over the
" wonderful bargain."
I think I told you to send me your accounts of
expenditure from time to time. Any explanations,
except those of importance, can stand over till I see you.
Write them on slips of paper on one side, and you can
cut them out as occasion may require. Use all economy
consistent with respectability. Be most circumspect about
your conduct and about what acquaintance you form.
You are young : take care you be not led to what is wrong.
A false step now, or the acquiring of an improper habit or
propensity, might ruin you for life. Frequently look back
on your conduct and thence learn wisdom for the future.
. . . Have you been returning your parties ? Tell me
about anything of the kind. You must contract no debts
except through Mr Cookson.
On February 25th William writes to explain
further the purchase of which his father had disap
proved. He tells how he has returned his invita
tions by giving two parties, both of which broke up
about seven o clock. His explanations must have
had weight, for on March 3rd he writes again : " I
was very glad that you do not object to the boat
now, as I had been very uneasy since I received your
first letter." " I am beginning to get very anxious
to see all at home again, and am already looking
forward with pleasure to the time when I shall be
able to get away." " Our (Peterhouse) boat is at
the head of the river."
On February 27th Elizabeth wrote to her brother
that papa (he was always " papa " to his children)
38 LIFE OF LORD KELVIN CHAP.
was reconciled to the purchase of the boat. But on
March i2th William had to write that there were
more accounts to pay. The College examination
was now demanding all his time for preparation.
" I have been thinking on writing a short paper on
some points in electricity for the May number of the
Mathematical Journal, but I do not know whether
I shall have time till after the littlego. ... I bathed
to-day at Byron s Pool, for the first time, along with
Hemming and Gisborne." *
Dr. James Thomson was, however, not quite
satisfied. He wrote to Cookson to ask whether he
approved of the way his son was conducting himself,
and the reply was reassuring. Accordingly, on
March 2yth James Thomson sends his son, without
further inquiries, ^10, out of which he may pay for
the boat ; but he hints that Cookson doubts the
propriety of the young undergraduate writing those
advanced contributions to the Cambridge Mathe
matical Journal. Before this letter was received
William had sent his father another batch of College
accounts, which promptly evoked a call for further
explanations as to unexplained items, On March
3Oth William admits in a rather crestfallen way his
failure to account for the discrepancy of a few shil
lings, and explains the principal items of his College
bills. On April 6th the father writes, hoping that
his lecture on economy to his son has not been too
severe, and tells of a visit of Archibald Smith, who
does not agree that William should be discouraged
1 Francis Gisborne, of Peterhouse ; B.A. in 1845.
ii CAMBRIDGE 39
from writing in the Journal , also mentioning a
dispute raging in the Senate of the Glasgow Univer
sity, where he, James Thomson, was championing
the abolition of religious tests against the party led
by the Principal and Professor Fleming. On April
1 4th, acknowledging bank-notes from his father,
William writes suggesting certain mathematical
subjects for junior and senior classes at Glasgow.
Archibald Smith s encouragement came, he says,
just when he had taken down from its shelf his
Fourier, and some notes made in Frankfort, which
he now proposes to work up into an original paper.
" The sculling is going on with great vigour, and is
keeping me in excellent preservation. Every one
now says that I am looking much better now than I
did some time ago, and I find that I can read with
much greater vigour than I could when I had no
exercise but walking in the inexpressibly dull coun
try round Cambridge."
On April 2Oth he writes about his original mathe
matical work for the Journal, for which he will have
time in the summer in the house at Knock Castle
(three miles from Largs), which his father has secured
for the holidays ; and referring to the College exam
inations adds, " of course, at present I have not
much time for such dissipation." " Our classical
lectures are on the 6th book of the ^Eneid (one of
our littlego subjects) which will form the Latin
part of our classical examination."
On May 6th he writes again that the College
examinations are now nearing, and that he is reading
40 LIFE OF LORD KELVIN CHAP.
hard in hopes of getting a Gisborne scholarship.
He has now bought the other half-share of the boat.
" I always go down along with Hemming and
Stephen 1 (who is also one of Hopkins s men, and is
3rd of his year at St. John s). Budd, of Pembroke,
another of Hopkins s men, and probably the only
one of whom Hemming has anything to fear in the
Senate-house, is thinking on joining our fleet in the
long vacation." He asks his father to bring to
Knock Fourier s and Poisson s Theories of Heat,
as he will want to work at them. "You should
endeavour to persuade Sandford to come to Cam
bridge instead of to Oxford. The well-taught, well-
trained, and at the same time clever man is the man
for Cambridge." He was now working very hard
for the College examinations, working a mathe
matical paper each day, and spending the rest of the
time on classics ; rowing, however, from two to four
with " the fleet." He distinguished himself suffi
ciently to earn the Gisborne scholarship. Cookson
sent word to Dr. James Thomson : " Your son has
passed an excellent examination, and has shown
that he possesses talents which will enable him to
obtain the highest honours in the University, if he
goes on as he has begun. I thought it possible that
there might be some slight deficiency as regards his
qualifications for a Cambridge examination, but there
appears to be little or none, and one may anticipate
a very successful termination to his University
career."
1 James Wilberforce Stephen, of John s, Wrangler in 1844.
ii CAMBRIDGE 41
James Thomson wrote advising his son how to
travel as cheaply as possible from Cambridge to
Largs ; and on June 3Oth the question of College
expenses is again the subject of severe parental
comment. The total cost of maintenance at College
had been ^230 17:8 since October 1841.
The summer of 1842 was spent by the united
Thomson family very pleasantly at Knock ; the
event of the season being the engagement of
Elizabeth Thomson to the Rev. David King. 1
William found time to complete for the Journal the
two original memoirs which he had in hand.
The first of these memoirs of 1842, "On the
Linear Motion of Heat," gave the solution in two
different forms of the differential equation which
expresses the linear motion of heat in an infinite
solid, by which equation it is sought to find the tem
perature at some point at any distance, x, from a
given zero-plane at any time t. This paper was a
mathematical development of some intricacy on the
lines of Fourier s work.
Again and again in later years Lord Kelvin
would return to this paper as containing the germs
of many of his subsequent ideas. In its concluding
passage it contained a speculation as to the inference
to be drawn if negative values are assigned to the
time t ; for obviously the theorems laid down hold
good for negative values of t, as well as for positive
1 Rev. David King, born 1806 ; minister of Greyfriars Secession (United
Presbyterian) Church in Glasgow ; LL. D. of Glasgow, 1 840 ; one of the
founders of the Evangelical Alliance, 1845; lived at Kilcreggan, 1855-60;
minister of the Presbyterian Church, Bayswater, 1860-69, and of Morningside
Church, Edinburgh, 1869-73; died in London, 1883.
42 LIFE OF LORD KELVIN CHAP.
values. In general it resulted that the temperature
of any plane except the zero plane will be impossible
for negative values of t ; since the initial distribution
of heat, assumed in the function, is in general not of
such a form as to constitute any stage, except a first
stage, in a possible system of varying temperatures.
In other words, the state represented cannot be the
result of any possible anterior distribution of tem
perature. Lord Kelvin used to declare that it was
this mathematical deduction which convinced him
that there must have been an origin to the natural
order of the cosmos ; that therefore natural causes
could not be deduced backwards through an infinite
time. There must have been a beginning.
A second part of the investigation on the linear
motion of heat was published in 1843. ^ dealt
with the solution of cases where the source was
periodic in time ; as, for example, the case of the
propagation downwards into the earth of the
periodic changes of temperature produced on the
surface by the diurnal and annual variations of the
heat received from the sun.
The second memoir, which is dated " Lamlash,
August 1842," has for its title " On the Uniform
Motion of Heat in Homogeneous Solid Bodies,
and its connection with the Mathematical Theory of
Electricity." It was subsequently reprinted (1872),
as Article I. of Lord Kelvin s collected volume of
papers on Electrostatics and Magnetism. In this
memoir the leading idea is a certain analogy that
had struck him when pondering the Faraday
ii CAMBRIDGE 43
problem of curved lines of force. In the flow of
heat through a solid conducting body, surfaces,
called isothermal surfaces, may be drawn through
all points that are at equal temperatures ; and the
stream-lines of the flow of heat as it passes from one
isothermal to another will always intersect these
surfaces normally. Again, if a conducting body be
electrified, the charge of electricity at once dis
tributes itself over the surface with such a distribu
tion that the attraction on a point close to that
surface, if oppositely electrified, will be perpendicular
to the surface. The sole condition of equilibrium
of electricity, distributed over the surface of a body,
is that it shall fulfil this requirement. Consider a
(closed) surface in an infinite solid to be somehow
retained at a constant temperature from within,
there being a steady flow of heat outwards across
the surface. Next consider an electrically conduct
ing body, bounded by a surface of identical shape,
to be exercising forces on electrified points outside
it. Then the electrical attraction at any point of
surface, in the second case, will be proportional to
the intensity of the flux of heat at a similarly-
situated point in the first case ; and the direction of
the attraction will correspond to that of the flux.
Farther, there follows this remarkable theorem, that
if around a conducting or non-conducting electrified
body of any shape, a surface be conceived to be
described, such that the attraction on points situated
on this surface may be everywhere perpendicular
to it, and, if the electricity be removed from the
44 LIFE OF LORD KELVIN CHAP.
original body and distributed in equilibrium over
this surface, its intensity, at any point, will be equal
to the attraction of the original body on that point,
divided by 4 TT, and its attraction on any point with
out it will be equal to the attraction of the original
body on the same point. The possibility of thus
replacing the actual system by an ideal distribution
that should be equivalent to it so far as the pro
duction of forces was concerned, greatly facilitated
the calculation of attractions in certain cases which
previously were not amenable to mathematical treat
ment. The memoir went on to consider the special
case of the uniform motion of heat in an ellipsoid.
In the case of heat, where the isothermal surfaces
are confocal ellipsoids, as Lame had previously
shown, they will meet the lines of flow ortho
gonally ; so also will the lines of electric force in
the corresponding electric case. The development
of this conception, in mathematical form, was
masterly, but the requisite integrations were stated
quite simply ; the theme presenting the appearance
of a piece of physical insight mathematically stated,
rather than that of an analytical investigation having
a physical interpretation. After Thomson s paper
had been some time in the hands of the editor of
the Cambridge Journal, he discovered that he had
been anticipated by M. Chasles, the eminent French
geometrician, in two points, namely, in the ideas that
led to the determination of the attraction of an
ellipsoid, and in an enunciation of certain general
theorems regarding attraction. He, therefore, when
ii CAMBRIDGE 45
the paper appeared some months later, prefixed a
reference to M. Chasles memoirs, and to another
similar memoir by M. Sturm. Still later, Thomson
discovered that the same theorems had been also
stated and proved by Gauss ; and, after all, he found
that these theorems had been discovered and fully
published more than ten years previously by Green,
whose scarce work he never saw till I845. 1
Here was an undergraduate of eighteen handling
difficult methods of integration readily, and with
mastery, at an age when most mathematical students
are being drilled assiduously in so-called geometrical
conies and other dull and foolish devices for calculus-
dodging. And not only was he handling with
mastery the processes of the higher mathematics,
but he was here attacking and solving problems,
and laying down general and important theorems in
physical science, to which three of the finest mathe
maticians in Europe had already independently been
led. And yet his methods were not theirs. That
of Chasles was geometrical rather than analytical,
while Thomson had arrived at his by discussing
Faraday s paradox of the curved lines of force at a
moment when his mind was steeped in Fourier s
treatment of the flow of heat.
October 1842 saw William Thomson back at
Peterhouse to begin, under Hopkins, his higher
mathematical training, the normal course of which
should end in the Senate-house examinations in
January 1845. He writes, on October ist, that he
1 See p. 113 for an account of this.
46 LIFE OF LORD KELVIN CHAP.
has sent to Gregory the paper he was writing at
Knock ; that Hemming and Stephen are both back,
and sculling has begun again. By October 7 he
knows that his paper is accepted for the November
number of the Journal. He has now begun reading
with Hopkins, who is giving them viva-voce ex
aminations. " I can judge very little yet of any of
the other men whom I meet with him, but I hope
they are not extremely formidable." But there are
more College bills to be met. He has, however,
won a mathematics prize of ^"5, which he purposes
to spend upon a Knight s Illustrated Shakespeare.
His brother John writes to him, on October 6th,
that Anna has been at Thornliebank ; J also, that
Margaret Crum and her sisters, Mary Gray and
Jessie, came to Glasgow College yesterday for a
call, and that Margaret was staying over the night.
Then his father writes, asking why he did not buy,
as his prize, Liouville s Journal de Mathdmatiques,
instead of the Shakespeare. Next Elizabeth writes
that Robert is ill with scarlet fever ; and a fortnight
later, when he is recovering, sends gossip about two
young ladies, whom William will regret to hear are
engaged to be married. On November 14 Anna
writes : " We are all going on much as we did last
winter. Our German studies resumed ; Margaret
Crum being in the class, as formerly, and John and
papa have also joined us."
1 The Rouken, Thornliebank, near Glasgow, the residence of Walter
Crum, J.P., F.R.S., head of the famous calico-printing firm, and a great
authority on all pertaining to cotton fibre. Walter Crum was a first cousin
of Dr. James Thomson.
ii CAMBRIDGE 47
On December 7 James Thomson sends his son
a piece of news. Dr. Meikleham, the aged Pro
fessor of Natural Philosophy, is seriously ill, and he
is concerned as to the possibility of a vacancy.
Who would be a suitable person to succeed him?
Professor J. D. Forbes or Mr. Gregory ?
William returned to Glasgow to be present at
the wedding of his sister Elizabeth to Dr. King on
December I5th. After that the winter seems to
have gone uneventfully, though there are many
letters sent to William from the family. His cousins
the Crums, of Thornliebank, are often mentioned.
An inquiry, of February u, from Alexander Crum,
"How is the cornopiston coming along?" reveals
the fact that Thomson had fallen under the fascina
tion of music, and had begun to practise playing the
cornet. Of which more hereafter. A week later
John writes that " Margaret Crum has been staying
with us."
William had been fearful when he first went to
read with Hopkins, that he might have a formidable
rival in Fischer, 1 another of Hopkins s pupils. But
as time went on William was reassured as to his
own powers, and told his father so. On March
22nd James Thomson wrote his son a letter of
worldly wisdom. " I am glad to hear that Fischer is
not likely to be so formidable. Do not relax, however,
as he or some of your persevering Johnian com
petitors may shoot ahead. I am also glad to find
1 W. F. L. Fischer, of Pembroke ; Fourth Wrangler, 1845; Fellow of
Clare, 1847 ; afterward Professor of Mathematics at St. Andrews.
48 LIFE OF LORD KELVIN CHAP.
you have got acquainted with Walton. 1 Your having
the favourable opinion of such people may serve
you much hereafter. You never mention Aytoun 2
or Lushington, 3 and their friends are asking me
from time to time whether you say anything of
them. You should, by all means, cultivate Aytoun s
good wishes, as you might thus, as readily as in any
other way, secure the support of a friend of his in
case of a certain event coming round. You should
also pay attention to Lushington, walking with him,
etc., if you can make it answer; and mention both
frequently, if it were only to say they are well, or
any other little matter."
This letter reveals, for the first time, the exist
ence of a secret between father and son as to a
certain event which might occur. In the precarious
state of Dr. Meikleham the chair of Natural Philo
sophy at Glasgow might fall vacant ; and Dr. James
Thomson had now formed the ambition that his son
might be qualified to succeed to it. As the months
went on, and Dr. Meikleham rallied, and William
continued to prove his remarkable original powers,
not only in mathematics, but also in physical applica
tions, this ambition became almost an obsession, as
subsequently appears. Dr. Meikleham was an
esteemed and trusted friend of the elder Thomson,
and his son Edward Meikleham was an intimate
comrade of the younger Thomson.
1 Rev. William Walton, of Trinity ; Eighth Wrangler and Third Senior
Classic, 1836 ; Fellow of Trinity Hall, 1868 ; author of Walton s Mechanical
Problems^ and other works.
2 Roger St. Clair Aytoun, of Trinity, Third Junior Optime, 1845.
3 Franklin Lushington, of Trinity; B.A., 1846 ; afterwards Fellow.
u CAMBRIDGE 49
Early in 1843 Thomson had begun to keep a
diary of his doings ; whether any earlier part was
written is unknown. That which has been preserved
extends over the Lent and Easter terms till October
1843. If it is ever published, it will be found to
exhibit a striking picture of University life in the
forties. A very few extracts bearing on Thomson s
own career are here given.
EXTRACTS FROM CAMBRIDGE DIARY (1843)
February 13, 12 P.M. Nothing remarkable to-day.
Commenced rising at seven, after my last week s laziness,
and mean to take shower bath to-morrow. Had a scull
to-day with Hemming and Stephen. Though it was a
glorious day, Stephen still grumbled very much about
sculling. (Weighed 8 stones I o Ibs. in my jersey.) After
hall walked with Barton l on business in town. Had half
an hour s practice on the cornopean, before seven, when I
commenced reading.
February 14, iif P.M. Had rather a long paper from
Hopkins. After it, as it was a snowy day, practised
the cornopean, partly along with Shedden 2 till hall time.
After hall went to vote at the Union, and after that to
Hemming s rooms, where I found Foggo. 3 Field came
in afterwards, and we waited till chapel time. After I
got to my rooms I practised a little on the corn[opean],
and then read a little Paley, and looked over some of
De Morgan s Dim 1 . Calc., on Geom. of 3 dimns. At 1 1
Barton came over with his knee cut and trousers shattered,
having fallen in taking a corner on account of the frost.
Fitzpatrick 4 came in, and interrupted any conversation we
should have had.
1 Richard Barton, of Peterhouse ; B.A. in 1845.
2 Thomas Shedden, of Peterhouse ; B.A. in 1846; died 1906.
3 David Foggo, of John s ; B.A. in 1843.
4 Richard William Fitzpatrick, of Peterhouse ; B.A. in 1841.
VOL. I E
50 LIFE OF LORD KELVIN CHAP.
March 5,2 h. 25 m. A.M. . . . Yesterday night I got
foul of the orthogonal surface again, and sat till 1 2^- with
my feet on the fender, but got no satisfaction. To-day after
coming from Hopkins, I have got some new ideas, but
not the ones I wanted. . . . After I had worked at
Hopkins problems till 1 1^, I commenced practising and
summoned Tom. 1 About half-past 1 2, after we had been
for about half an hour practising " We re a Noddin "
and " Logic o Buchan " in the lowest keys we could
devise, and when I was in the act of playing " Adeste
Fideles," at my reading stand, and Tom playing " Logie
o Buchan " at the chimney-piece, a gentle tap was heard
at the door. " Come in," shouted Tom, and in walked
Mr. Cookson. " Perhaps you are not aware, gentlemen,
how much noise these horns make," etc. " We are very
sorry," etc.
March 15, 1843. This morning I got hold of my
math, journal, and spent an hour at least in recollections.
I had far the most associations connected with the winter
in which I attended the Natural Phil, and the summer
we were in Germany. I have been thinking that my
mind was more active then than it has been ever since,
and have been wishing most intensely that the ist of
May 1840 would return. I then commenced reading
Fourier, and had the prospect of the tour in Germany
before me. What a melancholy change has taken place
with Dr. Nichol since then !
March 16, iij. . . . I found Gregory reading " Piers
Plowman," and spent a long time with him looking over
it, and discussing old words. I asked him about where
I could see anything on electricity, and we had then a
long conversation in which Faraday and Daniell got
abused.
March 20, \2\. . . . On Saturday night I got
Shedden to mull some of the wine I had just received
from Lynn, and got Greenwood over to help to consume
it. We remained till 3 o clock, and had a great deal of
1 Thomas Shedden.
ii CAMBRIDGE 51
interesting conversation on metaphysics, dreams, ghosts,
etc. ... I was delighted to find that the passage which
(the only one I ever read) disgusted me with Butler s
Analogy had had exactly the same effect with him.
March 24, I i|-. To-day I went to the Court before I
had time to read at all. I remained for two hours or three
hours listening to Kelly s speech about a will case. ... If
something else fail, I think I could reconcile myself to the
Bar, though it would be a great shock to my feelings at
present to have to make up my mind to cut Mathematics,
which I am afraid I should have to do if I wished to get
on at the Bar. . . . After hall I received a letter from
papa (containing tin), advising me to see something of
Lushington and Aytoun, and to mention them now and
then in my letters. I accordingly set out and saw
Aytoun, and asked him to wine to-morrow, and left a
card for Lushington to the same effect.
March 26, Sund. \\ A.M. . . . My party went off
seedily enough. Littlego and boats kept us barely in
conversation. I read nothing after it except a chapter
of Paley, but occupied myself with my cornopean.
March 31,11 h. i o m, . . . This evening I have
been working at Paley and Xenophon, keeping steadily
before my mind the fear of being plucked. I have been
corng. a good deal, to relieve my head from the seediness
concomitant upon littlego subjects.
April 24, Monday , 10 h. . . . On Sunday night, after
I was left alone, I read Evelina till 2 h. 20 m., when I
finished it (the first novel I have read for two or three
years).
May i. . . . I went to Challis s first lecture to-day.
He showed us prisms principally, and after lecture I saw
the dark lines well.
Sunday, May 14, 1843. The boat racing has
commenced in earnest. On Wednesday we had not
much racing, but kept easily our place on acct. of the
Johnians being bumped by Caius. Yesterday the odds
were strongly in favour of Caius bumping us, but we
astonished the University by keeping away. We had a
52 LIFE OF LORD KELVIN CHAP.
glorious pull for it, and I shall remember for my whole
life the work of seven minutes last night. My pleasure
at keeping away was beyond anything I have ever felt.
We shall have another hard pull to-morrow, as Caius
means to bump us, and so I must have plenty of sleep.
October 23. I have been reading Faust every evening
after hall with Blackburn.
This last entry introduces us to Hugh Black
burn of Killearn, who later became Professor of
Mathematics in Glasgow. Thomson had met him
in his first term, and often he used to repair, after
hall, to Blackburn s rooms in Trinity. It was here
that they swung the famous Blackburn s pendulum.
Some time in 1841-42 Blackburn s elder brother
Colin (then in chambers in King s Bench Walk,
Temple, London, afterwards Lord Blackburn), was
asked by Archibald Smith to introduce him to
Thomson. The introduction was effected at an
informal dinner in Colin Blackburn s rooms, to
which Thomson and Hugh Blackburn came up.
Archibald Smith remained a firm friend of Thom
son s for life, and influenced his bent towards the
study of the phenomena of tides.
On March 24, William writes to his father that
he has been pulling in the second Peterhouse boat,
and that they want him to pull in the races next
term. He will not, however, as he would be too
sleepy in the evenings.
On April 9, James Thomson writes his son that
Dr. Meikleham is much recovered, and, though he
may be called away suddenly, he may survive for
some time. He consults him as to books suitable
ii CAMBRIDGE 53
for algebra teaching at Glasgow. Then he adds a
few words of advice :
Never forget to take every care in your power regard
ing your health, taking sufficient, but not violent exercise.
In "your walk in life" also, you must take care not only
to do what is right, but to take equal care always to
appear to do so. A certain censor morum et omnium
aliarum rerum * here has of late been talking a good deal
about the vice of the English Universities, and would no
doubt be ready to make a handle of any report or gossip
he might pick up.
William replies on April 12, sending copies of
papers and suggestions on algebra books. Adds
that he won 6 last term in prizes. On April
20 he sends a solution of the centre of gravity of
spherical triangles, and tells that he has been
awarded the Clothworkers Exhibition of 6 : 155.,
and that- he has been bathing before breakfast with
Hemming.
The same day the father writes to his son on the
turn which affairs are taking.
GLASGOW COLLEGE, April 20, 1843.
MY DEAR WILLIAM Busy though I am, I cannot
avoid writing to you on this the eve of our last penultimate
Friday. On Monday forenoon Dr. William Thomson 2
called on me, the earliest time he could after the funeral
of his daughter. He had been in Edinburgh, where your
friend Gregory s brother-in-law, Alison, had met with
him, and spoken to him about the N. P. Chair here for
Gregory ; and Dr. T. told me that he had that morning
written to Forbes to hear whether he still looked to the
1 This is a sly reference to Dr. William Fleming, Professor of Moral
Philosophy, familiarly known to his students as " Moral Will."
2 Professor of Materia Medica, see p. 21.
54 LIFE OF LORD KELVIN CHAP.
chair, as he told him that if he did not the electors ought
to be aware, so that they might look out for other candi
dates, or something to that effect. I felt that in these
circumstances I ought to mention to him my views
regarding you. In doing this I asked him whether Dr.
Nichol had ever conversed with him about the chair, and
finding that he had not I told him about Dr. N s. views
regarding you. He was naturally struck with the idea
of your youth, etc. ; but he received the proposition as
favourably as could be expected. He asked about your
experimental acquirements, particularly in Chemistry ; and
he mentioned Forbes as being in this respect one of the
first men of the day, and as being of " European reputa
tion." He seemed also to wish Gregory to be found to
be a good experimentalist, as well as what he is acknow
ledged to be, a good mathematician, and he said that a
mere mathematician would not be able to keep up the
class. In the course of the evening I sent him a note, the
first copy of the main part of which I enclose [see below].
I also wrote to Dr. N., requesting him, as the matter was
thus opened, to call as soon as he could on Dr. T., and to
state his opinion regarding you. This Dr. N. did not fail
to do the next day, and he called on me after the inter
view. He told me Dr. T. received his communications
very favourably, and said that, were it only to prevent
objections, you ought to practise a good deal in perform
ing experiments. I saw Dr. T. the next day (yesterday),
when he spoke in a very friendly manner. . . .
Now I wish you to consider this subject seriously.
Consider whether you can or should get any introduction
to your professor of Chemistry, or whether you ought to
be at the expense of some apparatus for experimenting
in your rooms at your times of recreation. Dr. W. T.
justly remarked, that while he had no doubt of your being
able to lay before the electors here ample proofs of your
being an accomplished analyst in mathematical and
physical science, yet it would operate much against you,
especially if Forbes were on the field, should you not
be able to give evidence of your acquaintance with
ii CAMBRIDGE 55
the manipulations, to a certain extent, of experimental
philosophy.
Could you get a proper introduction to Cumming,
you might tell him you wished to practise in some small
degree in performing experiments (keeping, of course, your
main object concealed from him and all others) ; and
he, if you could get no means in his laboratory, would
probably direct you regarding some simple apparatus
and some suitable books ; and a certificate from him
or any such person on this subject might be of great
consequence.
Turn the whole matter carefully in your mind, and
write to me soon about it. Dr. W. T. would, I know, be
glad to do a kindness to me or to any of my family when
he could do so with propriety, and I feel it to be kind in
him to offer such suggestions. At the same time, as I
have told him, neither you nor I could think of carrying
the matter, were it in our power, unless it were likely to
be for the good of the establishment and of the public.
I shall shortly answer your last letter. I am, your
affectionate father, JAMES THOMSON.
The letter sent by James Thomson to Dr. William
Thomson is as follows :
COLLEGE, April 17, 1843.
MY DEAR SIR I beg you to regard a part of our
conversation to-day (about the part which I mean you
cannot mistake) as strictly confidential. When you adverted
to the subject, I felt it to be only candid, in the terms on
which you and I are, to say what I did.
Having said so much, I only ask, that in a quiet and
prudent way you will get, as occasion may offer, from
persons more disinterested than myself, information regard
ing the character, the qualifications, and the promise of the
person about whom I naturally feel a deep interest. On
some convenient occasion I shall show you some private
communications regarding him.
56 LIFE OF LORD KELVIN CHAP.
On April 24 William replies to his father :
I feel very strongly what you say about the propriety
of my endeavouring to get some practical experimental
knowledge as soon as possible. I am, however, afraid
that almost anything I could do in my rooms here could
not be much more than trifling. I shall, however, look at
some apparatus as soon as possible, for the polarization of
light, as there are many experiments in it which I might
perhaps repeat with advantage, and without losing much
time. I must, however, as long as I am here rely prin
cipally upon reading for getting experimental knowledge.
I have of late, whenever I have had time to spare, been
reading some of Lame s Cours de Physique, which is an
entirely experimental work. . . .
I must principally, however, depend upon getting some
experimental practice in Glasgow. I should be delighted
to have access to the laboratory, and I am sure I could
improve myself very much. If there was any immediate
haste, I might perhaps cut Hopkins for the long vacation
and spend my time in Glasgow, but still I must not forget
my principal object in being here. . . .
As soon as possible I shall speak to him [Gregory]
about some papers for the May No. of the Math. Journ.
As Mr. Cookson, however, has been " hoping I do not
now lose any time with the Math. Jour." I must endeavour
not to attract his attention. All my papers as yet have
been on physical subjects. I am sorry I cannot get some
copies of my paper in the I4th No., as it contains demon
strations of some propositions, deduced entirely from
physical considerations, which I could not prove analytically
till after two or three years.
On May 5 William writes to his father, then
expected shortly to visit Cambridge :
At the beginning of this week we commenced reading
with Hopkins for the term. . . . The first morning I
went, I was agreeably surprised by his telling me that,
if I improved a little in writing out my papers more
ii CAMBRIDGE 57
explicitly, I should be sure of being Senior Wrangler.
I had been beginning for a long time to think that he
considered Fischer to [be] better than me, and so you
may imagine that I was very much delighted with what
he said. As he only said it to myself, however, I have
not told anybody except you, and I think it should not
be told to any one else.
On May 4 James Thomson sent his son two
letters :
GLASGOW COLLEGE, May 4, 1843.
MY DEAR WILLIAM I send you the remaining half
notes for 20, of which I have every confidence you will
make the best use. Your bookseller s bill seems large.
Purchase no books you can avoid. You can have the use
of my books ; and as to the important object the forma
tion of a library of your own you ought to postpone it
for the present.
You will be glad to hear that I have succeeded in
carrying the election of Sir Thomas Brisbane as Dean of
Faculties. . . . We carried the election by only a single
vote ; but we could even have spared that one. . . .
Dr. Meikleham was brought out, and I am happy to say
was so well as to be bandying jokes, and he seemed to be
more himself tt\d3\ I have seen him for a long time.
In the present state of matters our party, if we agree
among ourselves, and if we can carry the Rector and Dean
with us, is exactly equal to the other. We have the
advantage, however, that the Principal being chairman
has no vote at an election except in case of an equality ;
and in case of a certain chair becoming vacant, a vote
would thus be lost to the other party. What you have
to do, therefore, is to make character general and scientific
so as to justify the Lord Rector, the Dean, and the other
electors who usually act with me, in supporting you a
matter of difficulty on account of your youth.
I have told Dr. W. Thomson what you say about such
experiments as you could perform in your rooms being
only a kind of trifling. He says you are wrong, as the
58 LIFE OF LORD KELVIN CHAP.
bringing of your hand into practice, at your time of life, is
of great importance, were it only in the management of
vials, and in other similar things of apparently an equally
unimportant kind ; and Dr. Nichol is of the same opinion.
In fact, your being able to get some certificates as to your
having attended to such matters would help in neutralising,
or at least meeting the objections sure to be brought
forward by certain persons here, and what is of great
consequence, would tend to secure the support of electors
who would be friendly to you and me, but who might be
afraid to support you on account of your youth. For
your age your character here stands, I believe, excellently.
You must strive to support it and to add to it. Take
care to give a certain gentleman here (who, as to private
affairs, is more nearly omniscient than any one I have
known) no handle against you. Avoid boating parties of
in any degree of a disorderly character, or anything of a
similar nature ; as scarcely anything of the kind could take
place, even at Cambridge, without his hearing of it.
I have more to write, but as I fear it will be too late
for post, I must close, and am your affectionate father,
JAMES THOMSON.
The second letter related to the possibility of
Professor J. D. Forbes becoming a candidate for the
professorship. Forbes was a warm friend of the
Thomsons, and his friendship was prized by William
Thomson till his death in 1868.
In reference to this William writes :
May 8. I take the first opportunity of returning to
you Prof. Forbes s letters, with which I have been very
much pleased. As far as I can judge, I think it is pretty
clear that he is very anxious for the situation, and, think
ing himself sure of it, wishes to make his own terms before
he accepts it. ...
It was in this term that Thomson joined the
crew of the Peterhouse boat in the College races.
ii CAMBRIDGE 59
We have seen that a year before he had taken to
" sculling," and his earlier letters speak of men who
had joined the group dubbed by their comrades
" the Fleet." This was a coterie of five persons :
Hemming of St. John s, who was Senior Wrangler
in 1844, an d who subsequently became a leading
Chancery barrister; Stephen of St. John s, a Wrangler
in 1844; Field 1 of St. John s; Gutch of Sidney
Sussex, a Wrangler in 1844 ; and Thomson of Peter-
house. The " Fleet " wa
