Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
'William Thomson, Lord Kelvin 1824-1907', in M. McCartney and A. Whitaker
(eds.), Physicists of Ireland: Passion and Precision (Bristol and Philadelphia:
Institute of Physics Publishers, 2002), pp. 116-125. Thomson's yacht the Lalla
Rookh is described and illustrated in A. L. Rice, British Oceanographic Vessels
1800-1950 (London: The Ray Society, 1986), a fascinating compendium of informa-
tion on those ships that were the workhorses of oceanographic research.
The most comprehensive account of William Thomson's geochronological
research is that by Joe D. Burchfield, Lord Kelvin and the Age of the Earth, 2nd edn
(University of Chicago Press, 1990), which contains an exhaustive bibliography.
Burchfield discusses in detail the methods used by Thomson and the counter
arguments to his work, which are also found in Stephen G. Brush, 'Finding the
age of the Earth by physics or by faith', Journal of Geological Education 30 (1982),
34-58. Arthur Stinner discusses the mathematical calculations used by Thomson
in his geochronological papers in 'Calculating the age of the Earth and the Sun',
Physics Education 37, part 4 (2002), 296-305 from where Figure 11.2 is taken. In
Great Feuds in Science: Ten of the Liveliest Disputes Ever (New York & Chichester:
John Wiley & Sons, 1998) Hal Hellman recalls the debates between Thomson and
the geologists; this essay contains the quotation of Mark Twain. A longer quotation
from Twain appears in Burchfield, Lord Kelvin (1990), p. ix.
Thomson's most important papers on the age of the Sun and Earth were,
firstly, those relating to the age of the Sun: 'On the mechanical energies of the Solar
System', Philosophical Magazine 8 (1854), 409-430; 'On the age of the Sun's heat',
Macmillan's Magazine 5 (1862), 288-393; 'On the Sun's heat', Proceedings of the
Royal Institution 12 (1889), 1-12; secondly, on the cooling rate of the Earth: 'On the
secular cooling of the Earth', Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 23
(1862), 157-170; and was followed by 'On Geological Time', Transactions of the
Geological Society of Glasgow 3, part 1 (1868), 1-28, and 'The age of the Earth',
Nature 51 (1895), 438-440; and thirdly, on tidal friction and the Earth's rotation and
shape: 'On Geological Time', Transactions of the Geological Society of Glasgow 3,
part 1 (1868), 1-28. His final paper contribution to the geochronological debate was
'The age of the earth as an abode fitted for life', Annual Report of the Smithsonian
Institution for 1897 (1898), 337-357. [Reprinted in Journal of the Transactions of
the Victoria Institution 31 (1899), 11-34, and in the London, Edinburgh, and
Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, Series 5, 57 (1899), 66-90].
A critical examination of Clarence King's work is given in K. R. Aalto,
'Clarence King's geology', Earth Sciences History 23, part 1 (2004), 9-31.
Thomson's reaction to King's 1893 paper is summarised in Ellis L. Yochelson and
Cherry Lewis, 'The age of the Earth in the United States (1891-1931): from the
geological viewpoint', in Lewis and Knell The Age of the Earth (2001) pp. 139-155,
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