JAMES CLERK MAXWELL 343 



form, most favourable to the development of lines of force, 

 brought with it the high efficiency customary to-day in the 

 transformation of mechanical into electrical energy, and 

 vice versa. The foundations of electrical engineering were 

 laid. 



Maxwell in his short life had many other achievements to 

 his credit; of these we can only mention here his contribu- 

 tions to the kinetic theory of gases, which were directed to- 

 wards deeper penetration into the subject, and an extension 

 of Clausius' work. 



James Clerk Maxwell, born in Edinburgh, came from a 

 very old Scotch family. He was educated at the family seat, 

 entered at the age of thirteen the university of his birthplace, 

 and went three years later to Cambridge. After he had dis- 

 tinguished himself by a series of geometrical, mathematical, 

 and optical publications, and also some concerning lines of 

 force, he was made professor of physics in Aberdeen in 

 1856. Two years later he married. From i860 to 1865 he 

 was Professor of Physics at King's College in London: he 

 there met Faraday. Later he retired to his estate, where he 

 lived, apart from a journey to Italy, and short visits to 

 London, entirely for his scientific work, which then resulted 

 in his great work on electricity and magnetism. In the year 

 1 87 1 he again decided to accept a professorship; this was in 

 Cambridge, where, as a novelty, a special physical laboratory 

 was built, which he opened. But only eight years later, in 

 his forty-eighth year, a sudden illness put an end to his 

 activities. The important confirmation of his mathematical 

 and theoretical structure by the discoveries of Hertz was 

 made after his death. 



