scholarly journals The Conception and Development of Weir's Diagram

1977 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 517-520
Author(s):  
Charles H. Cotter
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Magnetic Compass ◽  
Spherical Trigonometry ◽  
Independent Variables ◽  
William Thomson ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Lord Kelvin

Just a century ago, in 1876, Patrick Weir, an officer of a vessel trading between London and Australia, conceived the idea of a diagram that might facilitate finding the Sun's true azimuth for the purpose of checking the magnetic compass. Some thirteen, years later Captain Weir's Diagram was the subject of a paper communicated by Sir William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In his paper Weir outlined the train of reasoning by which he succeeded in constructing a novel diagram which was described by Professor P. G. Tait as ‘a singularly elegant construction which, not only puts in a new and attractive light one of the most awkward of the problems of spherical trigonometry, but it practically gives in a single-page diagram the whole content of the two volumes of Burdwood's Azimuth Tables’. Tait also remarked that the method supplied an interesting graphical plane construction of a function of three independent variables.

Lord Kelvin and His Compass

1979 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. E. May
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Trade Mark ◽  
Final Part ◽  
Unpublished Paper ◽  
House Of Lords ◽  
William Thomson ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Obituary Notice ◽  
Lord Kelvin ◽  
Patent Design

It is now more than thirty years since Commander W. E. May, R.N. (formerly of the Admiralty Compass Observatory), drafted this hitherto unpublished paper, recording his opinions based on a study of documents made available to him in 1947 by Messrs Kelvin, Bottomley and Baird. The documents referred to in the paper are:The Thomson v. Moore case as presented to the House of Lords in the Thomson v. Moore case (Patent Design and Trade Mark Cases, Vol. VII, No. 36.)The case of Thomson v. Hughes (Patent Design and Trade Mark Cases, Vol. VII, Nos. 9 and 22.)Report of Proof of case of Kelvin v. Whyte Thomson &. Co.Bound volume of patent specifications referred to in the last named.It is a curious habit of editors and publishers to invite well-known persons to write articles on subjects outside their normal orbit. Thus in 1874 Sir William Thomson was invited to write for Good Words an article on the mariner's compass. He took up the task and soon realized that he did not know enough of the subject to complete the article. He then began to study the compass and the final part of the article was published in 1879. Such is one of Lord Kelvin's explanations of how he came to interest himself. In 1885, in an affidavit for the Moore case, he said that he took up the study of the compass in 1871, whilst elsewhere he said that it was the necessity of writing for the Royal Society an obituary notice on Archibald Smith, who died in 1872, which first turned his attention to compasses.

Sir William Thomson and the Intercept Method

1972 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-98
Author(s):  
Charles H. Cotter
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
New Method ◽  
William Thomson ◽  
Lord Kelvin ◽  
Short Method ◽  
Royal Society Of London

The year 1971 marked the first centenary of the publication of a paper on navigation which appeared in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London in which the author, Sir William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) described a new method of determining an astronomical position line. The method was impracticable and was not, therefore, adopted by practical seamen. Nevertheless, its design is ingenious and interesting, and an investigation of its principles adds lustre to the genius of its inventor—reputedly one of the most eminent philosophers of the nineteenth century. Although the method failed in the eyes of the mariners for whom it was intended, Thomson sparked off an interest in short-method tables which has persisted even to the present day.

scholarly journals The formation of ice and the grained structure of glaciers

1905 ◽  
Vol 76 (512) ◽  
pp. 431-439 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Precise Meaning ◽  
William Thomson ◽  
James Thomson ◽  
Lord Kelvin

In the following pages I have the honour to lay before the Royal Society the results of a lengthy research on the formation of ice and the grained structure of glaciers, which may serve as a complement to the previous investigations on the same subject published in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ and ‘Proceedings of the Royal Society by Forbes, Tyndall and Huxley, Tyndall, Faraday, T. Graham, J. F. Main, J. C. McConnel and D. A. Kidd, and elsewhere by Guyot, Agassiz, James Thomson, and Sir William Thomson (now Lord Kelvin), Hermann and Adolf Schlagintweit, Person, Leydolt, Rüdorff, Bertin, Grad and A. Dupré, Moseley, A. Heim, J. T. Bottomley, K. R Koch and Klocke, Forel, Ed. Hagenbach-Bischoff, E. von Drygalski, Mügge, H. Hess and others. 1. It will be convenient at the outset to define the precise meaning with which it is proposed to employ certain words, some of which are in vague popular use, while others are less familiar or new.

VI. On the thermal effects of compressing fluids

1859 ◽  
Vol 149 ◽  
pp. 133-136 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Investigation ◽  
Thermal Effects ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Absolute Zero ◽  
Compressed Air ◽  
Thermal Unit ◽  
Thermo Electric ◽  
William Thomson ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Theoretical Results

Professor William Thomson has published a theoretical investigation of the subject of the present paper, in which he arrives at the formula θ = T ep /JK, where θ is the increase of temperature, T the temperature from absolute zero, e the expansibility by heat, p the pressure in pounds on the square foot, J the mechanical equivalent of the thermal unit in foot-pounds, and K the capacity for heat in pounds of water, of a cubic foot of the fluid employed. He has also given a Table of theoretical results for the compression of water and mercury. The investigation being established on the basis of well-ascertained principles and facts, the correctness of the Table could not be reasonably doubted. Nevertheless, believing that an experimental inquiry would be interesting if not important, I have ventured to offer the following to the notice of the Royal Society. The only previous experiments on the subject of which I am aware are those of M. Regnault. To his memoir on the Compressibility of Liquids, he appends a note on the heat disengaged by the compression of water. The method employed by this celebrated physicist, though less delicate, is similar to that which I have adopted. One set of the junctions of a thermo-electric pile was placed in a copper vessel filled with water, to which a pressure of ten atmospheres could be instantaneously communicated by means of a reservoir of compressed air. The 1/64th of a degree Centigrade could be detected by his thermo-multiplier. Nevertheless the conclusion arrived at was the negative one, that “the heat disengaged by a sudden pressure of ten atmospheres on water is unable to raise its temperature 1/50th of a degree Centigrade.”

scholarly journals On the effects of magnetisation on the electric conductivity of iron and nickel

1903 ◽  
Vol 71 (467-476) ◽  
pp. 30-42 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Electric Conductivity ◽  
Theoretical Interest ◽  
William Thomson ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Lord Kelvin

That magnetisation has an effect on the electric conductivity of metals was first noticed in 1856 by William Thomson* (Lord Kelvin), and since then, on account of its very great theoretical interest, this phenomenon has formed the subject of numerous experiments.

The ‘Universal’ Sea and Air Navigation Tables and the a and b Almanac

1951 ◽  
Vol 4 (02) ◽  
pp. 109-116
Author(s):  
F. Radler de Aquino
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Spherical Coordinates ◽  
Heavenly Body ◽  
William Thomson ◽  
Spherical Triangles ◽  
One Year ◽  
Lord Kelvin ◽  
First Time

The position of a point on the surface will then be expressed by two spherical coordinates: namely, ist, the distance of the point from the primitive circle measured on a secondary; 2nd, the distance intercepted on the primitive circle between this secondary and some given point of the primitive circle assumed as the origin of coordinates.—William Chauvenet,Manual of Spherical and Practical Astronomy(1896).On 16 May 1870, exactly eighty years before this paper was written, Lord Kelvin, then Sir William Thomson, worked out an epoch-making example of how to find the hour angle and azimuth of a heavenly body by inspection, in order to facilitate the use of Captain Thomas Sumner's method at sea. His work was published one year later in theProceedings of the Royal Society, and in it he describes a page of his new Tables for Facilitating Sumner's Method at Sea. These tables, comprising nine pages, were made public on 11 November 1875 and were published in London in May of the following year; from them have been derived all modern navigation tables based on right-angled spherical triangles. Kelvin then used, for the first time, Greenwich hour angle in arc and assumed latitudes and longitudes. (The writer has himself used G.H.A. in arc since 1902 and assumed positions since 1908.)

scholarly journals XVI.—The Problem of a Spherical Gaseous Nebula.

1908 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 259-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lord Kelvin
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Philosophical Magazine ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Lord Kelvin

THIS paper was begun about the close of 1906, in order to fulfil a promise given at the end of the paper “On the convective equilibrium of a gas under its own gravitation only,” published in the Philosophical Magazine, 1887; and part of it was communicated by Lord Kelvin to the Royal Society of Edinburgh at its meeting on 21st January 1907. Since then, however, important additions have been made to it, and the subject has been dealt with more fully than was originally intended. Unfortunately the manuscript was left incomplete at Lord Kelvin's death. It ended with § 35.

scholarly journals XVI. On the permanent temperature of conductors through which an electric current is passing, and on surface conductivity, or emissivity

1884 ◽  
Vol 37 (232-234) ◽  
pp. 177-189 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Properties ◽  
Electric Current ◽  
Theoretical Investigation ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Surface Conductivity ◽  
Primary Object ◽  
William Thomson ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Different Diameters

The experiments of which an account is given in the following paper were commenced several months ago in connexion with a theoretical investigation by Sir William Thomson, “On the Effect of Clothing,” showing the dependence of the effect on the relation between the dimensions of the covered body, and the dimensions and physical properties of the covering. A primary object of the experiments was the determination, for practical purposes, of the temperature of electric light conductors. The preliminary experiments have led to results which seem to be of considerable importance, and they point to the necessity for a fresh determination of the “emissivity” or “surface-conductivity” of bodies of various dimensions, and under various circumstances as to surroundings and as to air pressure. With respect to the determination of the permanent temperatures of wires carrying electric currents, very little seems to have been done experimentally. In fact, the only important experiments on the subject seem to be those of Mr. Preece, on the currents required to fuse and to raise to a dull red heat platinum wires of different diameters. These were communicated to the Royal Society in a paper read April 3, 1884. I may here remark that the results given by Mr. Preece differ in a very definite way from those which I have obtained; but it is to be noticed that the temperatures of Mr. Preece’s determinations were much higher than those at which I have, up to the present, experimented.

A letter by William Thomson, F. R. S., on the ‘Thomson effect’

1971 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-232
Keyword(s):  
Electrical Conduction ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Mobile Element ◽  
Public University ◽  
The State ◽  
Thomson Effect ◽  
The Public ◽  
University Library ◽  
William Thomson ◽  
Lord Kelvin

Of two letters written by William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) to the Genevese physicist Auguste de la Rive (1801-1873, For. Mem. R.S.) which are preserved in the public University Library of Geneva, one is of distinct interest. This letter (M.S. 2319), written on 17 December 1856, throws sidelights on the discovery of the ‘Thomson Effect’ (originally described in his paper to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1851) and on the state of his thought about the nature of the mobile element involved in electrical conduction.

Essay reviews: Maxwell's early career

1991 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 266-270
Keyword(s):  
Modern Science ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Mathematical Representation ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
James Clerk Maxwell ◽  
William Thomson ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Lord Kelvin ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Physical Quantities

P.M. Harman, The scientific letters and papers of James Clerk Maxwell. Volume 1. 1846-1862 . Cambridge University Press, 1990. Pp. xxvii + 748, £125.00. ISBN 0-521-25625-9 James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) was arguably the most important British physicist in the latter half of the last century; a period in which there was some stiff competition from, for example, William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) and G.G. Stokes. With Darwin and Faraday he is among the men of science of the 19th century most widely admired by modern scientists. The reasons for this are not hard to find. His work had a lasting impact on physics and he pursued the subject both experimentally and mathematically in ways very similar to the methods of modern science: especially in the mathematical representation of physical quantities. Maxwell has been the subject of much scholarly study in recent years, but no scholarly biography of him has appeared or, so far as I am aware, is in progress. Furthermore, his immediate followers, the Maxwellians, have also been studied extensively. The lack of biography and concentration on followers might be taken to be a little curious except for the fact that a surprisingly small quantity of manuscript material has survived, for someone of his eminence. One of the reasons for this is obvious. His house, Glenlair, was destroyed by fire and it seems likely that much of his archive was consumed in the flames. However, the manuscript writings of any individual fall into two groups, those that are kept by the writer and those that are sent as letters to friends and colleagues. Here the fate of Maxwell’s manuscripts becomes more problematic. Of course those letters he wrote to his father and wife would most likely have been destroyed in the fire. But many of his letters to, for example, Stokes and Thomson, which should be in their archives, have simply disappeared, leaving no trace. Furthermore, much of his incoming correspondence has not survived, presumably because it too was destroyed in the fire.

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