The Elements of Natural Philosophy

William Thomson (1824 - 1907), also known as Lord Kelvin of Largs (Scotland), began his career in 1846 as professor of natural philosophy at the University of Glasgow, a position he held until 1899. There he established the first physics laboratory in Great Britain. His investigations into the properties of matter made him famous. Thomson supervised the laying of the first transatlantic cable in 1866. He also invented and patented the mirror galvanometer (telegraph receiver) and the siphon recorder to improve cable communication. For his work he was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1866.

Thomson traveled widely in Europe and the United States, and gave a series of lectures at Johns Hopkins University in 1884 on the state of scientific knowledge. His interest in yachting and the sea inspired him to invent, patent, and manufacture a compass used by the British Admiralty, a calculating machine that measured tides, and sounding (or depth-measuring) equipment. With Peter Guthrie Tait, he wrote the textbook Treatise on Natural Philosophy, which was published in 1867 and was a major influence on future physicists. The Elements of Natural Philosophy (1872), coauthored with Tait, consisted, in great part, of the nonmathematical portion of The Treatise on Natural Philosophy. He served as president of the Royal Society from 1890 to 1895. At the time of his death Thomson had published more than six hundred papers and had been granted dozens of patents. He is buried at Westminster Abbey, London.

Peter Guthrie Tait (1831 - 1901) was professor of mathematics at Queen's College, Belfast. There he joined the noted Irish chemist Thomas Andrews (1813-1885) in research on the density of ozone and the effect of electric discharges on oxygen and other gases. From 1860 he was professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. Tait made fundamental contributions to the theory of quaternions (an advanced algebra that gave rise to vector analysis and was instrumental in the development of modern mathematical physics). His Elementary Treatise on Quaternions (1867) went through three editions. Later he wrote Introduction to Quaternions (1873). In collaboration with the English physicist William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, Tait produced Treatise on Natural Philosophy (1867), followed by The Elements of Natural Philosophy. After publication of Treatise on Natural Philosophy, Tait concentrated on studies of thermoelectricity and thermal conductivity. With the Scottish physicist Balfour Stewart he wrote The Unseen Universe (1867), followed by the sequel, Paradoxical Philosophy (1878).