LORD KELVIN DEAD.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 73, 19 December 1907, Page 7

LORD KELVIN DEAD.

HIS SCIENTIFIC WORK. LONG LIFE OF ' HIGH ACHIEVEMENT, DX TELEGEAPH—PRESS ASSOCIATION—-COPIEIOHT.-r. (800. Doc. 18, 11.48 p.m.) London, December 18. The death'is announced of Lord Kelvin, aet.at.B3.. AN EMINENT SCIENTIST. William Thomson, Baron Kelvin of Largs. PP°r a (SQ" of Scotland, was tho second soil of Juntos Thomson, LL.D., professor oi mathematics in the University of Glasgow. Ho was born at Belfast, Ireland,-on tho 26th. .1824, and at tho remarkably early ag#( of ten ho matriculated at' Glasgow University, i having acquircd-his.provious.oducation under 1 tho instruction of his father. In 1841 young ■ Thomson entered Potcrhouse Collego at Cambridge, and four years later tool; his degree as second wrangler, achieving at tho sama \ timo tho honour of boing first Smith's' Prize-•' man. tho sama year also ho was.elected to tho Fellowship of Pctorhousc. Thomson nest proceeded to '-Paris, studying for a year in the laboratory of Regnaultj who \vas at that time engaged!' upon his classical rosC.irches on tho thermal properties of steam.. Tho folloiving year saiyjiim at Glasgow, having, although .only twenty-two years of-ago, been appointed to tlie Chair of Natural! . '-.'. i i'" sn P'. l y , a .t th_e_ '"Dnivcrsity.' This position lio filled for fifEy-threo years,. ~aiid endowed with the lustra of a loiig sorios of scientific triumphs research and invention. / The, Glasgow .Chair of-.Natural Philosophy achieved under, Thomson's.distinguished occupancy an internatinnal reputation .as a well-spring of inspiration to scientific men. ' In 1860, partly -in—nckrrowledgment"of'"his'~sorviccs - "to submarine, telegraphy; -Thomson received tho honour of-knightnood,i and-in 1890 becamo President of tllo '.Royal Socioty. Ho was raised to the peerage-as Baron Kelvin of Largs in 1892, and in 189G, the year of tha •Tubilee-of -his-profcssdriat'of lfeTteeivcd the Grand Cross of the_ Royal Victorian Order. Ihe occasion of his jubilee was marked by a noteworthy colebratioh in his honour, tlie ~ of ~.the,-,.University'.being. filled: with &. gathering representative of;:rank'.-'and science such as liad never - beforo been assembled. Lord' Kelvin was twice married..!'ln 1852 he married Margaret, daughter of "Walter 1 Crum, •of_Thornliebank,. who. died :m '1870;' arid in 1874 lie married Frances 'Anna, daughter of C.' It. Ulaiuly of Madeira. " y : • CHARACTER SKETCH; Like most distinguished men of science, Lord Kelvin "was Hoted for his extreme modesty.; . His kindly; encouragement to students and others .with whom ho came in con-', tact must have, no doubt, contributed very largoly to'. the .advancement of physical: science during tlie late part of tho nineteenths -eent-uty-.—ln-a- long—lifc-of—uullaggjng enthusiasm and-Unwearied industry, lie invaded: .practically.. .every K department-, of . ; physical' ;scienCe. -His most important' investigations,/ from a strictly scientific viewpoint, were tliosa relating to tho.laws of Thermodynamics. Bufc\ it is by , his splendid services in' tho field of' .olcctricityi and particularly' with regard to its>apnlication-to submarine telegraphy, that ho is. best known,to the world.' The salient' points; in li's''observations: and ianalyses on' the principals of- Thermodynamics includo his contribution "to the' Royal : Society of - Edinburgh of a paper, on the Dynamic theory of heat, which reconciled'the work of Camot with, the conclusions of Rumford, Davy, ■Mayor, and Joule, and placed tho Dynamio theory-of heat and the fundamental principle of tho' Conservation of Energy in a" position to command almost universal acceptance. In this paper, further, the principle of tho Dissipation ofiEnorgy was first stated. In 1850 Thomson'verified by experiment tho theory, of his brother James, that, since water expands on freezing, incroaso of pressure must lower the freezing-point. Submarine Telegraphy, \Bdfho rycar 1854' marks ,-thor starting'-point of thoso, striking; investigations, • tho results of which have been of incalculable benefit to tho science of telegraphy. In tho Proceedings Øog tho Koyal Society, published in 1855, Thomson propounded his theory .of 1 signalling through submarine cables, and enunciated his conclusion that in long cables the retardation dne to capacity must render tho speed of jigttaliing. inversely..prop.QrtiQHa.l_ to tbesquare of tlio cable's length. To ovorcome this sorious disadvantage to a workable system of sub-, marine telegraphy lni carried out experiments with a view to (1) the 1 improvement, of cable material;' (2) the production of copper of high conductivity, and (3) the construction of apparatus which would readily respond to the slightest variation of the current m the cabla. ,Thc,mirror, galvonometcri and the siphon recorder, patented in 18G7, were tho outcomo of thoso researches. It was characteristic 'of Thomson that no sooner had lie satisfied himself as to the oxact nature of a physical quantity, enunciated his conclusion, and so reached the limit of scientific investigation properly so called, than lie becamo a practical ongmeor, and applied l|is conclusions to tho construction of apparatus adapted to tho requirements for the-incasurement of that particular quantity.

Electric Lighting. When olectrip' lighting camo to the front' a new set of instruments was produced to meet the rcqtiireniunts of tho electrical engineer. Thomson's electrometer was one of tlieso. It-may siU'oly bo said-that there is no quantity which the electrical engineer is ordinarily eallod-upon to measure for which Lord Kelvin has not constructed tho -suitable' in-' struinont-. Currents from one ton-thousandtlt qf.an ampero to ten thousand amperes; elec* t'rical pressure from a miiiuto fraction of a volt to" 100,000 volts, all came within tho raugo of/his instruments, while the private consumer .of electric ;oriergy is provided with a meter recording BoarcT of Trade units. When Wober, in 1851, proposed the extension ofUlauss's system of absolute units to electro-magnetism, ' Thomson . took up tho question, and, applying the principles of energy, calculated tho absolute electromotive forco .of a, Daniell-eell, and determined tho absolute measure; of .tho resistance of a wire from the heat produced in it by a known current. In,-1861, at Thomson's instalico, the British Association appointed its, first famous _uoinniJttoP-fp.r.ih.(3_dotenninnUpnpf electrical standards, and much of tho work done by Clork Maxwell, Bnlfour Stewart,, and Flecm. ing Uenkin, members of the eomniittcu, vai carried out oh.lines suggested by biiii. -

The Mariner's Compass. ; ~;::. ;^ Any roferenco to -the -resultsof thegreat scientist's extraordinary activity would be ■inboniplotowhich did not liotico his.wprk in devising apparatus"for. the- benefit of naviga't'ora? 'in 18r3-he-'-undertook' 1 n scries of articles on the mariner's compass. Ho wrote ono,' but-sO7inany ideas presented themselves to his, gonitis for investigati m that the second article did not appear until fivo years later.' In the interim tho, compass was,entiroly reconstructed at his hands; the permanent and temporary, magnetism of the ship was made capable oi' being readily compensated, while tliu weight of tho 10-inch card was reduced to one-seventeenth of tho standard' card previously in use, al-j"' though tho time.of .'swing' :'wns increased. Thompsons sounding apparatus, can ho taken in 100 fathoms by ships sailing 16 knots, and, by employing piano wire'of a breaking strength of MO tons per square inch atid an iron sinker weighing only 3'llbs., fitted with a self-registering pressure gauge, deep sea ' soundings nan he rapidly taken, constitute a bonciir, to marinors second only in importance to his' improved compass. His tido-gaugo, tidal haranalyse tido-predictpr, and, his tables for tho simplification of Su'mnor's method for determining tho position of ships at soa miis. , also be mentioned.. Nothing .was too abs. truso or too simplo to escape his attention; from o dissertation upon hydro-dynamical .principles he coulil descend to tho "question of improving a domestic.water-tup. Science and Religion. When , a scientist of world-wide repute, as was Kolvin, turnod from thoso lines of investigation which woro his particular function to reflect upon such a controversial question as the origin of man and tho material univorao, tho public expression of his opinions must inevitably hero attracted vridiMwroad, •

, nttention and comment. In 1903, Lord Kelvin, in moving a vote of thanks to.Professor Henslow for a' lecture given in connection withthe London University College Christian Association, made some interesting remarks regarding the relations of science and religion in the scheme of nature. Hβ said that as regards the'origin'of life, science made everyone feel a miracle 1 in himsolf. -It' Was not in ' dead matter that they-moved.and had their being; but in the creative anddirective power which science compelled them to accept ns.an Article i/ 'belief;. ; - Was.there,; he asked,/'anv- ' thing so .absurd as to believe, that a number • af atoms, .by falling l together of .their' own accord, could make a:sprig of moss, a microbe; a living animal ?. . People thought that, given millions of years, these'might come to ' pass, but.they could'not think that a million of milliphs of millions' of years could give them, unaided, a beautiful world Ilk. , ours. "They could be free in their thoughts, in thoir. criticisms, and, with freedom of thought, they, .were bound to. come-: to the conclusion that■"'science' was not antagonistic to.religioJV'but a help j. to religion. Lord Reay, who presided, remarked that- it was a grand thing, to hear-that .prince of science, f/nrd Kelvin, give 'Kip "testimony on. behalf of religion. -In, a letter to the .'.'Times" the following day, Lord Kelvin stated that he'deeired'tjo, point, out that':' "Whil? a fortuitous concourse' of atoms' is'; not van .inappropriate ' description of the 'formation- of a crystalj-it. is utterly absurd in respect to the coming into oxistence, or the growth,!or the continuation of the .molecular combinations'presentedin the, bodies, of .living things.;'. Here..scientific.; thought 'is 'compelled to accept the idea. of', creative power, i, Forty years ago.-I. asked .Liebig,' walking. , somewhere-.- ; in-the . country 'together,.- .believed' that ■, the grass ; and' the: flowers 'which' we .saw, around us, grew\ by liriere chemical forces. ' HfKanewered, 'N<V—no' more, than I' "could believe th'at a book' of;' botany describing them could, grow by merpchemical'forpes.' Every action, of human..free-will(is- a*.miracle to ' physical. and mathematical, science.",. These oxpreseioM of'opinion /gave rise to a very interestcontroversy -at ;th6' time. -■ '' ;-.-• •'• -■; .... .'Kelvin,.'the/man,f.'may be: summed iiip in the words of :Glasgow, niter j4-at ttie'-jubjlee.celebrations;—"His in- , dustry is' unwearied; and;Ke seems to take /rest by turning from one difficulty to another—difficulties that, ..would , appal) .. most, men, and be taken as enjoyment by no one else. '.'.';■ This life of unwearied industry, of , : universal honour, has loft' Lord Kelvin with a- lovable nature that charms all ,witk whom ■ lie comes in contact." ; - <■■•■•-■ t -