Lord Kelvin: An account of his scientific life and work

Gray, Andrew, 1847-1925Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.8
Word count
515K words
Chapters
52

Tags

English Originals Scientists History of PhysicsScientific BiographyScience EnlightenmentScientist LifeFigure PortraitsLord KelvinScientific SpiritAcademic StudyIntellectual CommentaryVictorian Era

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Lord Kelvin: An account of his scientific life and work by Andrew GrayAuthor: Gray, Andrew, 1847-1925,Language: English, Class: QC: Science: Physics, Release Date: Apr 4, 2012

Editor's review

This book is Andrew Gray's scientific biography of Lord Kelvin, a work in the physics category that focuses on his scientific life and research. Its strength lies in being written by a contemporary scientific worker, offering a relatively close account of Kelvin's contributions to thermodynamics, electromagnetism, and engineering applications, and allowing readers to see how a nineteenth-century scientist combined theoretical interests with practical problems. As a free Project Gutenberg e-book, it serves as an introductory text for reading in the history of science and is also suitable for physics students seeking background on the formative period of the discipline. It should not be read as a complete modern critical biography; the book depends noticeably on the context of its time and the author's perspective, and some technical discussions require a certain physics background to follow smoothly. General readers may prioritize the chapters on biography and scientific disputes, skipping technical details as needed.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Start with Kelvin's biographical timeline or the introduction to establish a chronology before reading the scientific chapters.
  2. When encountering thermodynamics or electromagnetism terminology, skip the derivations first and grasp the conclusions and the thread of scientific debates.
  3. Read alongside relevant chapters of a physics textbook to understand the historical context of the technical discussions.
  4. After each chapter, summarize its scientific contributions in a few sentences to grasp the biography's overall structure.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52

FAQ

Is this book suitable for readers with weak physics foundations? It can be read, but with some selectivity. The book involves specialized content such as thermodynamics and electromagnetism; readers with weak foundations may prioritize the biographical narrative and scientific disputes, skipping technical details as needed, and treat it as background reading in the history of science rather than a textbook.
What was the author's relationship with Kelvin, and is the account objective? The author, Andrew Gray, was a contemporary scientific worker. The book offers a relatively close account of Kelvin's scientific work but also carries the respectful perspective of a contemporary. Readers should consult other sources in the history of science to understand its temporal limitations and narrative stance.
What aspects of Kelvin does this book mainly cover? The title indicates an account of his scientific life and work, focusing on his scientific research and related engineering practice rather than private-life gossip. Readers can learn how a nineteenth-century physicist conducted research, engaged in academic debates, and applied science to practical matters.
How can I use this book efficiently when reading the e-edition? Use the table of contents to locate chapters on biography and major scientific contributions, and read selectively by topic; for technical passages, read the conclusions first and then review the arguments. The e-edition makes it easy to search names and terms; after finishing, use keywords to look back and form your own notes on the history of science.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Gray, Andrew, 1847-1925 Author · Scottish · 1847–1925

Andrew Gray (1847–1925) was a Scottish physicist who served as a professor at the University of Glasgow. His academic work centered on physics teaching and textbook writing; he authored textbooks on mechanics and heat, which provided systematic treatments of knowledge in these fields for instruction at the time. Beyond textbooks, he wrote Lord Kelvin: An Account of His Scientific Life and Work, a book that recounts Kelvin's scientific career and achievements, combining biographical and scholarly elements and serving as an important reference for understanding Kelvin's scientific contributions. Overall, Gray's writing tends toward a rigorous, clear expository style, in the service of teaching and the narration of scientific history. Public information about him is currently limited, and his reputation rests mainly on these textbooks and the Kelvin biography.