Degrees Kelvin: A Tale of Genius, Invention, and Tragedy by David Lindley (PDF)

Description

LORD KELVIN. In 1840, a precocious 16-year-old by the name of William Thomson spent his summer vacation studying an extraordinarily sophisticated mathematical controversy. His brilliant analysis inspired lavish praise and made the boy an instant intellectual celebrity.

As a young scholar William dazzled a Victorian society enthralled with the seductive authority and powerful beauty of scientific discovery. At a time when no one really understood heat, light, electricity, or magnetism, Thomson found key connections between them, laying the groundwork for two of the cornerstones of 19th century science—the theories of electromagnetism and thermodynamics.

Charismatic, confident, and boyishly handsome, Thomson was not a scientist who labored quietly in a lab, plying his trade in monkish isolation. When scores of able tinkerers were flummoxed by their inability to adapt overland telegraphic cables to underwater, intercontinental use, Thomson took to the high seas with new equipment that was to change the face of modern communications. And as the world’s navies were transitioning from wooden to iron ships, they looked to Thomson to devise a compass that would hold true even when surrounded by steel.

Gaining fame and wealth through his inventive genius, Thomson was elevated to the peerage by Queen Victoria for his many achievements. He was the first scientist ever to be so honored. Indeed, his name survives in the designation of degrees Kelvin, the temperature scale that begins with absolute zero, the point at which atomic motion ceases and there is a complete absence of heat. Sir William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, was Great Britain’s unrivaled scientific hero.

But as the century drew to a close and Queen Victoria’s reign ended, this legendary scientific mind began to weaken. He grudgingly gave way to others with a keener, more modern vision. But the great physicist did not go quietly. With a ready pulpit at his disposal, he publicly proclaimed his doubts over the existence of atoms. He refused to believe that radioactivity involved the transmutation of elements. And believing that the origin of life was a matter beyond the expertise of science and better left to theologians, he vehemently opposed the doctrines of evolution, repeatedly railing against Charles Darwin. Sadly, this pioneer of modern science spent his waning years arguing that the Earth and the Sun could not be more than 100 million years old. And although his early mathematical prowess had transformed our understanding of the forces of nature, he would never truly accept the revolutionary changes he had helped bring about, and it was others who took his ideas to their logical conclusion.

In the end Thomson came to stand for all that was old and complacent in the world of 19th century science. Once a scientific force to be reckoned with, a leader to whom others eagerly looked for answers, his peers in the end left him behind—and then meted out the ultimate punishment for not being able to keep step with them. For while they were content to bury him in Westminster Abbey alongside Isaac Newton, they used his death as an opportunity to write him out of the scientific record, effectively denying him his place in history. Kelvin’s name soon faded from the headlines, his seminal ideas forgotten, his crucial contributions overshadowed.

Destined to become the definitive biography of one of the most important figures in modern science, Degrees Kelvin unravels the mystery of a life composed of equal parts triumph and tragedy, hubris and humility, yielding a surprising and compelling portrait of a complex and enigmatic man.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This is a superb biography of William Thomson. But it is not just Thomson. The reader will find well-written sketches woven smoothly into the text of all the most influential people that Thomson dealt with in the course of his long life. These include Faraday, Helmholtz, Joule, Maxwell, and many you might not expect like Robert Louis Stevenson, the critically important but largely unknown French physicist, Sadi Carnot, and the equally ignored English physicist, Oliver Heaviside. Lindley is a gifted writer and this biography of Kelvin covers the history of classical physics in the last half of the 19th century in a way that the interested but not necessarily scientifically trained reader can easily follow. Lindley always includes the reader as a partner, so to speak. Unfamiliar terms are clearly explained. New names given are always explained and put into context. Having read the other reviews, I would agree that the book would be even better by the addition of more images and diagrams, though the book does have eight pages of such, mostly of Thomson himself in different stages of his life. I also wonder, as did a couple other reviewers, about the subtitle of the book. It gives the reader the impression that some catastrophic event ends the book. But that is not the case. There is no discernible “tragedy” involved in Thomson’s life. What the title is supposed to refer to is the fact that, at the end of his life, Thomson could not accept what to him was a purely theoretical understanding of nature embodied by Maxwell’s equations and the major changes in physics at the beginning of the 20th century. Thomson was, as Lindley points out, the last of the great physicists who embodied a mechanistic view of nature and he was stubborn about that conception. But, while this may be a weakness, it is hardly a tragedy. Everyone at the time of his death treated Thomson as a major figure in physics who deserved to be buried in Westminster Abbey near Isaac Newton.If one ignores the somewhat misleading title, this book is a masterpiece of scientific explanation. From being the first to put into mathematical form Faraday’s vision of electromagnetism to his fascinating work helping to lay the Atlantic cable, Thomson was a mathematical prodigy and scientific genius who insisted on using science whenever possible to make human life better. I recommend this book in the highest terms for anyone interested in the development of both modern physics and modern technology. Kelvin’s life is intrinsically interesting and the style is clear, easy to follow, and written by an author who knows both the science and the English language. A first-rate book.

⭐As an engineer myself, I’ve developed something of a hobby of learning about the people behind the names given to all these equations I use on a daily basis. Kelvin is one of said names, though throughout most of his life he went by the name William Thomson. In “Degrees Kelvin,” the author, David Lindley, tells the story of this 19th-century British scientist from his undergrad days at Cambridge through his death at the end of 1907. I think most scientists and engineers would enjoy reading this book and learning about one of the men responsible for the all-important laws of thermodynamics. I think Lindley did a remarkable job of presenting the man; if it were possible I would surely like to meet the Lord Kelvin. He seems like a friendly and amazingly intelligent man that I’m sure I could talk with for hours.In addition to the work on thermo, Thomson was instrumental in getting the transatlantic telegraph cable working, invented the forerunner to inkjet printers, a compass, and several other pieces of science that don’t necessarily bear the name Kelvin. But this biography isn’t just a story of the science; Lindley tells a captivating story and brings the man to life based on Thomson’s correspondence, various diaries, and newspapers. We learn about his family and his friendships with G.G. Stokes, P.G. Tait, and H.L.F. von Helmholtz, among others. Something that came as a surpise to me was the rivalries (read: borderline soap-opera drama) concerning just who was responsible for creating the laws of thermodynamics, the fighting over how to lay the cable, and Kelvin’s stubbornness in his later years concerning Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetism and refusual to believe in the modern developments of science such as radiation. Nevertheless, Thomson was always interested in using his math and science skills to solve practical problems, which is something that strikes close to home for me as an engineer. Thanks to this book, I now have a much deeper respect for, and understanding of, William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin of Largs.

⭐Another remarkable British physicist of the 19th century. The genius of William Thomson was formidable, capable of tackling every challenge in science quite fast, though not always totally right, but helping to narrow possible solutions and enriching scientific debate of the time. The book takes you to a great epoch of scientific knowledge and progress, from the theory of heat and the beginnings of Thermodynamics, the marvellous story of the trasatlantic cable and even the perfection of ships compasses to compensate the magnetic effect of the new Iron ships that were built by the British Navy. Although I think John Clerk Maxwell is definitely the 19th century physics genius, Thomson place his name near to Faraday and several others that contributed to the dynamic and flourish scientific knowledge of the second half of the 1800.William Thomson was a genius, but seems that to accept new ideas was not an easy process for him. After reading the book my opinion is the same as Maxwell — he was so busy on diverse interest that he was incapable of focusing on only one subject.

⭐This was a good book. The author does a nice job documenting the life and times of Lord Kelvin. It may not have been a goal of the author, but I think this book clearly illustrates that advances in science are not the work of one person, but collaboration between many different thinkers. Enjoy the read!

⭐This was a good book historical book, but I thought it wasn’t quite as good as one on Boltzmann I had read. (apples and oranges?)

⭐A great read! The ups and downs of the scientific process. Everything these great scientists achieved back in the 1800s seems so obvious to us now but back then it was a long drawn affair to reach the a better understanding. Go a buy a copy, you won’t be disappointed.

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