James Clerk Maxwell and Modern Physics Book Reviews

James Clerk Maxwell and Modern Physics by Richard Glazebrook Book Summary

“One who has enriched the inheritance left by Newton and has consolidated the work of Faraday—one who impelled the mind of Cambridge to a fresh course of real investigation—has clearly earned his place in human memory.” It was thus that Professor Lewis Campbell and Mr. Garnett began in 1882 their life of James Clerk Maxwell. The years which have passed, since that date, have all tended to strengthen the belief in the greatness of Maxwell’s work and in the fertility of his genius, which has inspired the labours of those who, not in Cambridge only, but throughout the world, have aided in developing the seeds sown by him. My object in the following pages will be to give some very brief account of his life and writings, in a form which may, I hope, enable many to realise what Physical Science owes to one who was to me a most kind friend as well as a revered master.
The Clerks of Penicuik, from whom Clerk Maxwell was descended, were a distinguished family. Sir John Clerk, the great-great-grandfather of Clerk Maxwell, was a Baron of the Exchequer in Scotland from 1707 to 1755; he was also one of the Commissioners of the Union, and was in many ways an accomplished scholar. His second son George married a first cousin, Dorothea Maxwell, the heiress of Middlebie in Dumfriesshire, and took the name of Maxwell. By the death of his elder brother James in 1782 George Clerk Maxwell succeeded to the baronetcy and the property of Penicuik. Before this time he had become involved in mining and manufacturing speculations, and most of the Middlebie property had been sold to pay his debts.
The property of Sir George Clerk Maxwell descended in 1798 to his two grandsons, Sir George Clerk and Mr. John Clerk Maxwell. It had been arranged that the younger of the two was to take the remains of the Middlebie property and to assume with it the name of Maxwell. Sir George Clerk was member for Midlothian, and held office under Sir Robert Peel. John Clerk Maxwell was the father of James Clerk Maxwell, the subject of this sketch.
John Clerk Maxwell lived with his widowed mother in Edinburgh until her death in 1824. He was a lawyer, and from time to time did some little business in the courts. At the same time he maintained an interest in scientific pursuits, especially those of a practical nature. Professor Campbell tells us of an endeavour to devise a bellows which would give a continuous draught of air. In 1831 he contributed to the Edinburgh Medical and Philosophical Journal a paper entitled “Outlines of a Plan for combining Machinery with the Manual Printing Press.”

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