Popular Lectures and Addresses

by Kelvin, William Thomson, Baron

• ISBN13: 9781108029780
• ISBN10: 1108029787
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-06-30
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

William Thomson, Baron Kelvin (1824-1907), was educated at Glasgow and Cambridge. While only in his twenties, he was awarded the University of Glasgow's chair in natural philosophy, which he was to hold for over fifty years. He is best known through the Kelvin, the unit of measurement of temperature named after him in consequence of his development of an absolute scale of temperature. These volumes collect together Kelvin's lectures for a wider audience. In a convivial but never condescending style, he outlines a range of scientific subjects to audiences of his fellow scientists. The range of topics covered reflects Kelvin's broad interests and his stature as one of the most eminent of Victorian scientists. Volume 1, published in 1889, includes talks about the constitution of matter and basic topics in physics such as light, heat, electricity and gravity.

Table of Contents

Protection of vegetation from cold

The 'doctrine of uniformity' in geology briefly refuted

On geological time

On geological dynamics

Presidential address to the British Association, Edinburgh, 1871

Presidential address to the Society of Telegraph Engineers, 1874

Review of evidence regarding the physical condition of the earth

Geological climate

The internal condition of the earth as to temperature, fluidity, and rigidity

Polar ice-caps and their influence in changing sea levels

On the rate of a clock or chronometer as influenced by the mode of suspension

On a new astronomical clock

On beats of imperfect harmonies

On the origin and transformation of motive power

On the sources of energy in nature available to man for the production of mechanical effect

On the dissipation of energy

The Bangor laboratories

Presidential addresses

Address delivered on the occasion of the unveiling of Joule's statue in Manchester Town Hall

Isoperimetrical problems

Index

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