Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 11.1 WilliamThomson,
later Lord Kelvin (1824-1907)
in 1854 (from his obituary
in Proceedings of the Royal
Society of London, Series A, 79
(1907), iii-lxxvi).
He is probably better known to most as Lord Kelvin of Largs
following his elevation to Baron in 1892. The name Kelvin came
from a small river that rises in the Kilsyth Hills, flows for 21 miles
close to Glasgow and empties into the River Clyde near Partick; and
Largs from the holiday resort in Ayrshire where he built his seaside
mansion Netherhall using earnings gained from his work connected
with the laying of the transatlantic cable. He had designedmuch of the
house himself and had it fitted with electric light. Additionally he was
able to buy an 82-foot-long, 121-ton schooner, the Lalla Rookh,in
1870. He used this vessel primarily for recreational sailing but also
carried out research on methods of depth sound, and recommended
the use of piano wire for recording depths. This method was used
during the celebrated oceanographic research voyages of the HMS
Challenger in 1872 but was soon found to be difficult to handle and
so was abandoned shortly into the voyage.
