Who was James Clerk Maxwell?
James Clerk Maxwell was one of the greatest scientists who have ever lived. To him we owe the most significant discovery of our age – the theory of electromagnetism. He is rightly acclaimed as the father of modern physics. He also made fundamental contributions to mathematics, astronomy and engineering. On the 13th June 1831 James Clerk Maxwell was born in Edinburgh, at 14 India Street, a house built for his father in that part of Edinburgh’s elegant Georgian New Town which was developed after the Napoleonic Wars. Although the family moved to their estate at Glenlair, near Dumfries, shortly afterwards, James returned to Edinburgh to attend school at The Edinburgh Academy. He continued his education at the Universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge. In 1856, at the early age of 25, he became Professor of Physics at Marischal College, Aberdeen. From there he moved first to King’s College, London, and then, in 1871, to become the first Professor of Experimental Physics at Cambridge where he
James Clerk Maxwell, whose death occurred on 5th November 1879, at the early age of 48, was destined to become one of the 19th century’s greatest scientific figures, and he may well prove to be one of Scotland’s greatest sons. He put an end to speculation as to the nature of light with his discovery that it is a form of wave motion, by which electro-magnetic waves travel through a medium at a speed, which is determined by the electric and magnetic properties of that medium. This is still the basis for explanations of all the phenomena of light and accompanying optical properties. He was unable to test his theory, but follow-up developments by others have given the world all forms of radio communications, including broadcasting and television, radar and navigational aids, and more recently the applications of radio to the control of rockets and satellites.
