Mathematical and Physical Papers, Volumes 1 & 2. by Thomson, Sir William - Lord Kelvin - 1882-1884

Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press, 1882-1884. First edition.

PRESENTATION COPIES OF FIRST TWO VOLUMES OF LORD KELVIN'S COLLECTED WORKS, INSCRIBED TO ONE OF HIS "BALTIMORE COEFFICIENTS" ATTENDING HIS LECTURES AT JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY IN 1884.

Two 9 inches tall hardcover volumes, publisher's green cloth binding, gilt title to spines, Vol. I, xiii, 558 pp, 3 folding plates, 31 pp publisher's advertisements; Vol. II, xi, 407 pp, 20 plates (some folding), 31 pages publisher's advertisements. Volume 1 with mounted presentation on Glasgow University stationery: "To [in separate hand]: A.B. Nixon / in remembrance of the Baltimore Coefficients of October 1884 / with Kind regards William Thomson," dated Dec.3, 1884. Volume 1 spine nicked at base, with general light external wear; rear hinge cracked, else clean, tight and unmarked; Volume 2 in somewhat fresher condition, with thin partial crack to front hinge (internal), light external soil; Very Good.

SIR WILLIAM THOMSON (LORD KELVIN) (1824-1907) was a British mathematical physicist and engineer born in Belfast. Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years, he did important work in the mathematical analysis of electricity and formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and did much to unify the emerging discipline of physics in its modern form. He received the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1883, was its President 1890–1895, and in 1892 was the first British scientist to be elevated to the House of Lords. He also had a career as an electric telegraph engineer and inventor, which propelled him into the public eye and ensured his wealth, fame and honor. For his work on the transatlantic telegraph project he was knighted in 1866 by Queen Victoria, becoming Sir William Thomson. He had extensive maritime interests and was most noted for his work on the mariner's compass, which previously had limited reliability. He was ennobled in 1892 in recognition of his achievements in thermodynamics, becoming Baron Kelvin, of Largs in the County of Ayr. In 1904 he became Chancellor of the University of Glasgow. The Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow has a permanent exhibition on the work of Kelvin including many of his original papers, instruments, and other artefacts, such as his smoking pipe.

In 1884, Thomson led a master class on "Molecular Dynamics and the Wave Theory of Light" at Johns Hopkins University. Kelvin referred to the acoustic wave equation describing sound as waves of pressure in air and attempted to describe also an electromagnetic wave equation, presuming a luminiferous ether susceptible to vibration. The study group included Michelson and Morley who subsequently performed the Michelson–Morley experiment that undercut the ether theory. The recipient of the volumes, A. B. Nixon, was presumably a graduate of Lord Kelvin's master class delivered at Johns Hopkins. Thomson always referred to this cohort as his "Baltimore Coefficients," and praised them on numerous occasions, most notably in the Preface to the Baltimore Lectures, in which he writes: "I hope it will be satisfactory to all my Baltimore coefficients still alive in our world of science, when this volume reaches their hands; to find in it dynamical explanations of every one of the difficulties with which we were concerned from the first to the last of our twenty lectures of 1884."