42 Britain's Heritage of Science 



On the whole, Joule's life ran a smooth course. The 

 independent means of his father allowed him to devote 

 his whole time to scientific researches. He never took an 

 active share in the management of the brewery, but the 

 record of his observations of the pressure and temperature 

 of the air are often entered on the blank pages of the books 

 in which the stocks of barrels were kept. After his father's 

 death, unfortunate investments materially diminished his 

 income, and he was unable to undertake the heavy 

 expenditure involved in the prosecution of his researches 

 without some assistance from scientific societies with 

 funds available for research purposes. The grant of a 

 pension of 200 from the Civil List released him in 1878 

 from further anxieties. In private life Joule often 

 expressed his opinions strongly, but the kindness of his 

 character impressed all who came into contact with him, 

 and the modesty of the man who, as much as any one, 

 has placed experimental science in this country in the 

 commanding position it occupies, is typically illustrated 

 by the remark he made about himself two years before 

 his death : "I believe I have done two or three little things, 

 but nothing to make a fuss about." 



William Thomson, born in 1824, was the second son of 

 James Thomson, who, at the time of his marriage, was 

 Professor of Mathematics in the " Academical Institution," 

 Belfast. He was eight years old when his father took over 

 the Professorship in the same subject at the University of 

 Glasgow, and matriculated at that University at the early 

 age of ten. He entered as an undergraduate at Cambridge 

 in October, 1841, his first paper " On Fourier's Expansions 

 of Functions in Trigonometrical Series " having already been 

 published in the Cambridge Mathematical Journal in May 

 of the same year. The paper was apparently written during 

 a journey to Germany in the previous summer. No less 

 than thirteen additional papers were published by him in 

 the same journal during his undergraduate career, which 

 ended in 1845 with his graduation as second wrangler. In 

 the following year he was appointed Professor of Natural 

 Philosophy at Glasgow, a position which he held during 

 fifty-four years. From an early period he was recognized 



