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Previous ( Alphabetically) Next Alphabetical Index Thomson attended Glasgow University from the age of 10. While there he read Fourier's work on the application of abstract mathematics to heat flow.
In 1841 Thomson entered Cambridge and took his BA in 1845. In that year he read George Green's work which had a major influence on Thomson's work.
Thomson was appointed professor of natural philosophy at the University of Glasgow in 1846 and remained there for the rest of his career. In 1847-49 he collaborated with Stokes on hydrodynamical principles, which Thomson applied to electrical and atomic theory.
The absolute scale he proposed in 1848 was based on a theory of heat by Carnot.
Thomson also observed (1852) what is now called the Joule-Thomson effect, namely that the decrease in temperature of a gas when it expands in a vacuum.
Greatly interested in the improvement of physical instrumentation, he designed and implemented many new devices, including the mirror-galvanometer that was used in the first successful sustained telegraph transmissions in transatlantic submarine cable. He was knighted in 1866 for his work on the transatlantic cable. Thomson's participation in the telegraph cable project led to a large personal fortune brought about by his cable patents and consulting.
Thomson published more than 600 papers, was elected to the Royal Society in 1851 and served as its president from 1890 to 1895. His abliity to lecture however is questioned in this quote:
More random unsatisfactory lectures I never listened to.
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