James Clerk Maxwell and Modern Physics

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The Century Science Series

Edited by Sir Henry E. Roscoe, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S.

JAMES CLERK MAXWELL AND MODERN PHYSICS

* * * * * *

The Century Science Series.

EDITED BY

SIR HENRY E. ROSCOE, D.C.L., F.R.S., M.P.

John Dalton and the Rise of Modern Chemistry. By Sir HENRY E. ROSCOE, F.R.S.

Major Rennell, F.R.S., and the Rise of English Geography. By CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, C.B., F.R.S., President of the Royal Geographical Society.

Justus von Liebig: his Life and Work (1803–1873). By W. A. SHENSTONE, F.I.C., Lecturer on Chemistry in Clifton College.

The Herschels and Modern Astronomy. By AGNES M. CLERKE, Author of “A Popular History of Astronomy during the 19th Century,” &c.

Charles Lyell and Modern Geology. By Rev. Professor T. G. BONNEY, F.R.S.

James Clerk Maxwell and Modern Physics. By R. T. GLAZEBROOK, F.R.S., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.

In Preparation.

Michael Faraday: his Life and Work. By Professor SILVANUS P. THOMPSON, F.R.S.

Humphry Davy. By T. E. THORPE, F.R.S., Principal Chemist of the Government Laboratories.

Pasteur: his Life and Work. By M. ARMAND RUFFER, M.D., Director of the British Institute of Preventive Medicine.

Charles Darwin and the Origin of Species. By EDWARD B. POULTON, M.A., F.R.S., Hope Professor of Zoology in the University of Oxford.

Hermann von Helmholtz. By A. W. RÜCKER, F.R.S., Professor of Physics in the Royal College of Science, London.

CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED, London; Paris & Melbourne.

* * * * * *

[Illustration: J. Clerk Maxwell

(From a Photograph of the Picture by G. Lowes Dickinson, Esq., in the Hall of Trinity College, Cambridge.)]

The Century Science Series

JAMES CLERK MAXWELL AND MODERN PHYSICS

by

R. T. GLAZEBROOK, F.R.S.

Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge University Lecturer in Mathematics, and Assistant Director of the Cavendish Laboratory

Cassell and Company, Limited London, Paris & Melbourne 1896 All Rights Reserved

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PREFACE.

The task of giving some account of Maxwell’s work--of describing the share that he has taken in the advance of Physical Science during the latter half of this nineteenth century--has proved no light labour. The problems which he attacked are of such magnitude and complexity, that the attempt to explain them and their importance, satisfactorily, without the aid of symbols, is almost foredoomed to failure. However, the attempt has been made, in the belief that there are many who, though they cannot follow the mathematical analysis of Maxwell’s work, have sufficient general knowledge of physical ideas and principles to make an account of Maxwell and of the development of the truths that he discovered, subjects of intelligent interest.