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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



of twenty-two. He matriculated as a 

 student at the age of eleven, and at 

 the age of seventeen began to publish 

 papers on the mathematical theory of 

 heat. Migrating to Peterhouse, Cam- 

 bridge, he became second wrangler. 

 Within four years Stokes, Cayley and 

 Adams had been senior wranglers, illus- 

 trating the precocity of mathematical 

 genius and the mathematical activity 

 of Cambridge at that period. For fifty- 

 three years Kelvin was professor of 

 natural philosophy at Glasgow. Like 

 Helmholtz he was not a good lecturer, 

 but like his great German friend lie 

 exercised an enormous influence on the 

 progress of science directly as well as 

 by his published work. The jubilee of 

 his professorship was adequately cele- 

 brated in 1896; from the volume giving 

 some account of it, the portraits here 

 reproduced are taken. Kelvin was 

 president of the Royal Society and of 

 the British Association, and was active 

 in their work, rarely failing to take a 

 leading part at the annual meeting of 

 the association. All the highest scien- 

 tific honors were of course conferred 

 on him. He was twice married, but 

 leaves no issue. 



To the general public Kelvin is best 

 known for his share in submarine 

 telegraphy, for his improvements in 

 the compass, for his machine for taking 

 soundings and for other inventions, 

 scores of which he patented. To the 

 electrician and the engineer many im- 

 portant instruments and improvements 

 in methods of measurement will occur, 

 such as his three electronometers, his 

 mirror galvanometer and his syphon 

 recorder. With Professor Tait he be- 

 gan a " Treatise on Natural Philos- 

 ophy," which has become a classic for 

 parts of mechanics. His popular ad- 

 dresses have been published in three 

 volumes. But it is only the scientific 

 man who can appreciate the range and 

 originality of Kelvin's performance. 

 As Shelly is the poet's poet and Velas- 

 quez the artist's artist, so Kelvin is 

 the man of science who appeals espe- 

 cially to his fellow-workers. They may 



criticize what they regard as his lim- 

 itations, but they are full of admira- 

 tion for the man and his work. It 

 covers an immense field — elasticity, hy- 

 drodynamics, heat, electricity and mag- 

 netism, the nature of the ether and the 

 constitution of matter. This is not the 

 place to attempt to describe his experi- 

 mental work or his far-reaching specu- 

 lations. A sketch will be found in the 

 tenth volume of this magazine, and 

 among the many obituary notices we 

 may refer especially to one in the issue 

 of Science for January 3, by Professor 

 Webster. 



It, is pleasant to remember that Kel- 

 vin three times visited this country. 

 He brought Great Britain and the 

 United States closer together by his 

 contributions to transatlantic telegra- 

 phy and to navigation, and his most 

 elaborate mathematical speculations are 

 to be found in the lectures given at the 

 Johns Hopkins University in 1884 and 

 published many years later under the 

 title " Molecular Dynamics and the 

 Wave Theory of Light." 



THE CONVOCATION WEEK MEET- 

 ING AT CHICAGO 

 There was a notable assemblage of 

 scientific societies and scientific men at 

 the University of Chicago during con- 

 vocation week. Not hitherto has there 

 been such a meeting west of the Atlan- 

 tic seaboard. This is gratifying as an 

 indication of the increased readiness of 

 scientific men to cooperate in their 

 organizations, and especially as a dem- 

 onstration of the great growth of sci- 

 ence in the central states. The Araer- 

 | ican Association for the Advancement 

 of Science last met at Chicago forty 

 years ago. It was the seventeenth 

 meeting and the third in size, the 

 attendance being 259, of whom prob- 

 ably less than half were scientific men. 

 Other meetings held so far to the west 

 with the registration have been: 1877, 

 Nashville, 173; 1878, St. Louis, 134; 

 1883, Minneapolis, 328; 1893, Madison, 

 290; 1901, Denver, 311; 1903-4, St. 

 Louis, 3S5; 1905-6, New Orleans, 233. 



