1908] The Scientific Work of Lord Kelvin. 20S 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, May 1, 1908. 



The Right Hok. Lord Rayleigh, O.M. P.O. D.C.L. LL.D. 

 D.Sc. Pres.R.S., in the Chair. 



Professor Joseph Larmor, M.A. D.C.L. LL.D. D.Sc. Sec.R.S. 



The Scientific Work of William Thomson, Lord Kelvin. 



[The material which constituted this discourse was subsequently 

 worked up into the obituary notice of Lord Kelvin, published by the 

 Royal Society (' Proceedings,' No. A 54;-), vol. 81 A, pp. i.-lxxvi.). 

 From that source the greater part of the present report is taken 

 textually. 



The lecture was illustrated by a very complete historical collection 

 of Lord Kelvin's scientific apparatus, utilised in part for experiments, 

 and in part as an exhibition in the Library. This was rendered 

 possible through the cordial co-operation of the University of Glasgow 

 and Prof. A. Gray, F.R.S., of the firm of Messrs. Kelvin and James 

 White, Ltd., and Dr. J. T. Bottomley, F.R.S., of the authorities of 

 the South Kensington Museum, and other contributors.] 



It would be impossible in a review of ordinary length to convey 

 any idea of the many-sided activity by which Lord Kelvin was con- 

 tinually transforming physical knowledge, through more than two 

 generations, more especially in the earUer period before practical 

 engineering engrossed much of his attention in importunate problems 

 which only he could solve. It is not until one tries to arrange his 

 scattered work into the different years and periods, that the intensity 

 of his creative force is fully realised, and some notion is acquired of 

 what a happy strenuous career his must have been in early days, with 

 new discoveries and new aspects of knowledge crowding in upon him 

 faster than he could express them to the world. 



The general impression left on one's mind by a connected survey 

 of his work is overwhelming. The instinct of his own country and 

 of the civilised world in assigning to him a unique place among the 

 intellectual forces of the last century, was not mistaken. Other men 

 have been as great in some special department of physical science : no 

 one since Newton — hardly even Faraday, whose limitation was in a 

 a sense his strength — has exerted such a masterful influence over its 

 whole domain. He might have been a more learned mathematician 

 or an expert chemist ; but he would then probably have been a less 



