William Thomson (Lord Kelvin)

Claimed by Yasmin Martins

Personal Life

William Thomson was born in College Square East, Belfast, Ireland on June 26, 1824. He was the second-born of four children. His mother passed when he was six years old. His family moved to Glasgow when Thomson was eight years old. His father worked as a math professor at the University of Glasgow, so Thomson began attending classes there at the age of ten. Thomson learned French when he was a teenager and read Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier’s theory of heat, which he argued was wrong, and was later proven to be right. Thomson studied at Cambridge University from 1841 to 1845. Thomson became a Professor of Natural Philosophy a year after he graduated from Cambridge. He taught for 53 years and launched the first college physics laboratory. William Thomson was knighted in 1866 by Queen Victoria as Lord Kelvin for laying the first submarine cable. He died at the age of 88 in Scotland and is buried in Wesminster Abbey, next to Sir Isaac Newton.

Connectedness

1. How is this topic connected to something that you are interested in?
2. How is it connected to your major?
3. Is there an interesting industrial application?

See also

Are there related topics or categories in this wiki resource for the curious reader to explore? How does this topic fit into that context?

Further reading

Thomson, William, Treatise on Natural Philosophy, 1867 Lindley, David, Degrees Kelvin: A Tale of Genius, Invention, and Tragedy, 2004

External links

http://digital.nls.uk/scientists/biographies/lord-kelvin/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/kelvin_lord.shtml http://inventors.about.com/od/kstartinventions/a/Lord_Kelvin.htm

References

http://digital.nls.uk/scientists/biographies/lord-kelvin/discoveries.html http://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Thomson-Baron-Kelvin http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Kelvin.html