1824-1907
WILLIAM THOMSON (afterwards Baron Kelvin) was born at Belfast on 25th June 1824, and was the son of James Thomson, LL.D., formerly professor of mathematics at the University of Glasgow. At the early age of eleven, Thomson entered Glasgow University, and finally St Peter's College, Cambridge. In 1845 he was second wrangler and first Smith's prizeman. After leaving Cambridge, he went to Paris and studied chemistry under Regnault. In 1846 Thomson was elected to the chair of natural philosophy in Glasgow University, and held the post for over fifty years. In 1841 he published a paper on the "Uniform Motion of Heat in Homogeneous Uniform Bodies." Thomson was a profound mathematician and physicist, "a prince of science and benefactor of the world."
Even at eleven years of age the young philosopher was solving the problem—how long it had taken the earth to cool since it first came together as a white-hot globe: and only a few years ago, he stated that the earth
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