THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



5*5 



THE PBOGEESS OF SCIENCE 



LORD KELVIN 



The two great advances of modern 

 science, perhaps the two most notable 

 human achievements, are the doctrine 

 of organic evolution and the doctrine 

 of the conservation of energy. All the 

 world has this year been celebrating 

 the hundredth anniversary of Darwin's 

 birth. William Thomson, born fifteen 

 years later, occupies in the physical 

 sciences a position almost equal to that 

 of Darwin in the biological sciences. 

 It is a striking fact that Great Britain 

 should have produced these two great 

 men in the same rank with Newton, by 

 whom, and near Darwin, Kelvin nearly 

 two years ago was buried in West- 

 minster Abbey. 



Thomson, like Darwin, appears to 

 have been impressed with hereditary 

 genius; his father was professor of 

 mathematics and his brother professor 

 of engineering. Unlike Darwin, typify- 

 ing a distinction which seems to obtain 

 between the mathematical sciences and 

 the sciences of observation, Thomson 

 was precocious. He matriculated at 

 Glasgow University at the age of ten 

 and attended his father's classes in 

 mathematics. He published a mathe- 

 matical paper of consequence before 

 going to Cambridge as a student at 

 the age of seventeen, and during his 

 years as an undergraduate at Peter- 

 house, he published a number of papers 

 on mathematical physics, which fully 

 represented the direction and charac- 

 teristics of the work which was con- 

 tinued for more than sixty years. He 

 became professor of natural philosophy 

 at the University of Glasgow at the 

 age of twenty-two. At Cambridge 

 Thomson rowed on his college boat and 

 won the Calquhoun sculls, one of the 

 chief athletic competitions of the uni- 

 versity. He was one of the founders 



of the musical society of the university 

 and played at its concerts. 



This vigorous versatility was main- 

 tained to the end of his long life. The 

 laying of the Atlantic cable, the fixing 

 of units on which electrical engineer- 

 ing is largely based, the invention of 

 electrical and other instruments, many 

 of which were patented and produced 

 a large fortune, seem almost incom- 

 patible with his theoretical work in 

 mathematical physics, though it is true 

 that his mathematical analyses were 

 kept in close touch with actual facts. 

 It seems odd to an American that he 

 should have changed the name that 

 had become familiar and famous, if 

 indeed the peerage itself is worth while 

 when there are no heirs to whom it can 

 be bequeathed. Darwin, to whom no 

 peerage was offered but who bequeathed 

 his name and a large measure of his 

 scientific genius to his sons, seems in 

 this respect to have enjoyed the better 

 fortune. Kelvin visited this country 

 three times and is associated with it 

 both by his work on the Atlantic cable 

 and by the fact that some of his most 

 important theoretical deductions were 

 made known in the form of lectures at 

 the Johns Hopkins University. 



An admirable account of Kelvin's 

 scientific work has been contributed to 

 the Proceedings of the Royal Society 

 by Sir Joseph Larmor. From this 

 monograph we reproduce three por- 

 traits — the two earlier ones on a re- 

 duced scale. It would be fortunate if 

 it were possible to reproduce the lucid 

 exposition of the development of Kel- 

 vin's contributions to science and their 

 relations to the work of his predeces- 

 sors and contemporaries. 



In 1848 it was possible for Thomson 

 to maintain the view that heat is a 

 substance which may produce energy 



