Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
William Thomson was born in Belfast on 26 June 1824, son of a
professor of mathematics. It soon became obvious that he was very
intelligent and his ambitious father ensured that both he and his older
brother James (1822-1892) studied hard. Perhaps this was in response
to the loss of their mother when Williamwas just six years old. James
in due course became Professor of Civil Engineering at the University
of Glasgow, a Fellow of the Royal Society and inventor of the vortex
turbine. In 1832 the family moved to Glasgow where William was to
spend much of the remainder of his life. He was enrolled at the uni-
versity at the tender age of ten, but did not graduate. Instead he
furthered his studies in Cambridge from 1841 where he enhanced his
reputation as an athlete and mathematician, and followed this period
with further study in France where he became interested in heat. This
was a research interest that was to remain with him throughout his
career. In 1845 he was appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy
(what we would now call physics) at his alma mater and so for a period
was on the faculty with his father who had canvassed hard for his son's
appointment.
Thomson was somewhat unlucky in his personal life. When he
decided that he wished to marry he proposed to Sabrina Smith three
times, and three times she rejected his advances. Undaunted, he
turned his attention to the daughter of a family friend: three months
after his third rejection by Miss Smith he proposed to Margaret Crum,
and soon afterwards they married. Almost immediately she suc-
cumbed to serious illness and remained an invalid, bed- or sofa-
bound until her death in 1870. Four years later at the age of fifty he
married Frances Anna Blandy whom he had met in Madeira while
engaged in some oceanographic research. Thomson had no children -
perhaps this is why he could devote so much time to his scientific
investigations.
On his return to Glasgow in 1845 he established a laboratory in
which students were trained in scientific methods and techniques. He
believed that they would become usefully employed in industrial
enterprises that were springing up in the region and making Glasgow
