Makers of Electricity

by Brother Potamian; James J. Walsh

Lord Kelvin

Few men lived to witness so many remarkable discoveries in science and so many applications of the same to the welfare of the race as did the man whose name stands at the head of this chapter. When William Thomson, the future Lord Kelvin, first saw the light of day, the voltaic pile was in a rudimentary and inefficient form. It is true that water had been decomposed by the current from a pile in 1800,[35] that the magnetic effect of the current had been discovered in 1820, and the possibility of a practical form of an electric telegraph suggested in the same year; but Ohm's law was still one of nature's secrets, electromagnetic induction was undiscovered, and the doctrine of energy but ill understood. Light, electricity and magnetism were regarded as distinct forces, and heat was thought to be a material substance, to which the name caloric was assigned. What Young, Fresnel and Ampère were in the early years of the nineteenth century; what Faraday, Regnault and Joseph Henry were some time later, Kelvin became in the 'fifties, a leader in the intellectual and scientific life of the time, a leader destined to extend the frontiers of knowledge, to establish an accurate system of electrical measurement, and to enrich the world with instruments of marvelous ingenuity and precision.

William Thomson, born in Belfast in 1824, received his early training in the Royal Academic Institute of that city. When eight years of age, he left his native land, exchanging the shores of Antrim for the banks of the Clyde. His father, James Thomson, a mathematician of note, having been appointed to the chair of mathematics in the University of Glasgow (founded in 1451), proceeded early in the summer of 1832 to the commercial metropolis of Scotland, accompanied by his two sons William and James, both of whom were destined to add lustre to the family name.

After a period of preparatory study, the two brothers, who were ten and eleven years of age, respectively, matriculated at the university. With the iron-clad regulations that govern admission to American colleges and universities, these boys would at best have been admitted to one of our high schools, and kept there until they reached the maturity required by the age limit. By the time young William attained that limit, he had already finished his work at the university, and captured the first prizes in mathematics, astronomy and natural philosophy. He was then only sixteen years of age, small of stature, but a giant in intellect; brilliant, versatile, and with a passion for work. It was his good fortune, also, to come under the influence of a great teacher, in the person of Prof. Nichol. "I have to thank what I heard in the natural philosophy class," he said in 1903, "for all I did in connection with submarine cables. The knowledge of Fourier was my start in the theory of signaling through submarine cables, which occupied a large part of my after-life. The inspiring character of Dr. Nichol's personality and his bright enthusiasm live still in my mental picture of those old days."

Having heard Fourier's treatise on the mathematical theory of heat spoken of one day as a remarkable and inspiring work, young Thomson astonished the Professor when, at the end of the lecture, he addressed Dr. Nichol with the query, "Do you think that I could read it?" To which the Professor smilingly replied: "Well, the mathematical part is very difficult." Many a student would have left Fourier alone for the nonce, after listening to a statement so little calculated to excite courage or awaken interest: but Thomson was not an ordinary student; and, however forbidding the answer which he received, he was determined all the same to handle the volume and seek its inspiration. Without delay, he got the book from the university library, and grew so delighted with the new ideas of the French mathematician about sine-expansions and cosine-expansions, that in the space of two weeks he had "turned over all the pages" of the book, as he modestly put it.

In the summer of 1840, he accompanied his father and his brother on a tour through Germany, partly to see the country and partly also, to acquire a practical knowledge of the language. In both these objects, he was somewhat hindered by his fondness for mathematical studies, which led him to include in his impedimenta for the trip a copy of Fourier's Théorie analytique de la Chaleur. Most students out on a summer's vacation, especially in foreign parts, would doubtless have preferred to give their minds rest and congenial distraction rather than keep on reading and pondering over abstract mathematical concepts. Our young tourist, on the other hand, seems to have thought of little else than of Fourier's "mathematical poem," as Clerk Maxwell called the work, a "poem" that continued to have a charm for him all through life. It is a noteworthy fact that Thomson continually returned to the ideas and methods of this suggestive treatise on the flow of heat, and that he applied them with great success to problems in thermal conductivity, in electricity and in submarine telegraphy.

Shortly after returning home, Thomson was sent to the University of Cambridge, where he entered St. Peter's College, commonly called Peterhouse, one of the oldest colleges of the university, its foundation dating back to the year 1284. Though he, no doubt, followed in a general way the directions given him by William Hopkins, "the best of private tutors," and kept in view the requirements of the honors examination, called the "Mathematical Tripos," for which he intended to present himself at the end of his course, he found his studies somewhat routinal and uninspiring. Original work was more to his taste than conventional subjects; his tutor, however, thought mainly of placing this brilliant pupil at the head of the wranglers, and hailing him the senior wrangler of the year, for which purpose, the beaten track must be followed, the standard works read, favorite problems worked out, short-cuts conned and rapidity of output exercised. Stokes, of Pembroke, had been senior wrangler in 1841; Cayley, of Trinity, in 1842; and Adams, of John's, in 1843; why not Thomson, of Peterhouse, in 1845, argued Hopkins, who had the distinction of being second wrangler of the previous year?

But when the ordeal was over and the work of all candidates appraised, Thomson's name was second on the list, with Parkinson, of John's, at the top. Hopkins was disappointed, as he had a right to be, for it was thought by many and said by some that Parkinson was not fit to sharpen Thomson's pencils. At the examination for the Smith's prizes, which immediately followed, and which was generally regarded as a higher honor and a better test of original ability, the order was reversed, and Thomson's star blazed out with the brilliancy of the first magnitude.