MAXWELL, st ES CLERK- ( 1831-7!) ). One of the greatest of modern physicists. IIe was born in Edinburgh, the only son of John Clerk Maxwell of Middlcbie, Scotland, receiving his early education at the Edinburgh Academy, and his first published scientific paper, On the De scription of Urn/ Curves, was read for him by Professor Forbes before the Loyal Society of Edinburgh before he was fifteen. 1Ic spent three years at the University of Edinburgh, where he pursued most zealously the study of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and philosophy, devoting con siderable time to experimental research. During this period lie wrote two valuable papers, On the Theory of Rolling Curres and On the Equilibrium of Elastic Solids. He went to Cambridge Uni versity in the autumn of 1850 and there made a brilliant record as a student, graduating in 1854 with the position of second wrangler, and being equal with the senior wrangler in the competition for Smith's prize. In 1856 he became professor of natural philosophy in Marischal College. Aber deen; in 1860 professor of natural philosophy in King's College, London. lie was successively scholar and fellow of Trinity, and became, in 1871, the first professor of experimental physics in the University of Cambridge. a post for which he was in every way preeminently qualified. The Cavendish laboratory was erected and furnished under his supervision. The great work of his life is his treatise on Electricity and Magnetism. (2 vols., 1873). He had previously, from 1856 onward, published various papers on these sub jects, following very closely the experimental pro cedure of Faraday. Using the discoveries of this great experimenter, Maxwell so connected and ar ranged them as to make the material available for mathematical discussion and treatment. He early advanced the view that electric or magnetic forces result from changes in the distribution of the energy which is stored up in the ether and are not produced by the attractions of electric or magnetic matter which is distributed over the surfaces of conductors or magnetic substances. He then demonstrated that electromagnetic ac tion traveled through space in the form of trans verse waves similar to those of light and having the same velocity. Maxwell's theory was cor
roborated by Hertz, who not only produced these waves, but showed that they are propagated just as waves of light are, and experience reflection, refraction, and polarization, and he also meas ured their velocity: Subsequent experiments amply confirmed Maxwell's hypothesis that elec tricity and light are the same in their ultimate nature. After Maxwell's researches on electricity and magnetism comes his work on color, the well-known Maxwell disks and color-box being his inventions. Ile showed that any given color could be produced by the combination of three colors selected from different parts of the spectrum. These three fundamental colors would correspond to three different sets of nerves or sensations in the eye, each excited proportion ately to the amount of its appropriate color in the compound color, The absence of any one set of sensations would occasion color-blindness.
A paper on the Stability of Motion of Saturn's Rings gained for Maxwell the Adam's prize from the University of Cambridge. 1857, and led to the conclusion that the rings must either be fluid or else consist of a large number of small par tidies. The kinetic theory of gases was also in vestigated by Maxwell, and the results of his study are given in a number of papers in the Philosophical Transactions, Philosophical Magas zinc, and the reports of the British Association. was a member of the electrical stand ards committee appointed by the Britiddi Asso ciation in 1862, and served on a subcommittee to construct the stamlard of resistance, which was produced from experiments made in his labora tory at King's College. Among his many papers and works, a small treatise on dynamics, Mattcr and Motion, will be found of great interest to the general reader, as it contain, a clear and com prehensive statement of the principles underlying this science. A memorial edition of Maxwell's scientific papers published by the Cambridge Uni versity Press was published in 1890. Consult: Campbell and Garnett, Life of James Clcrk Max (London, 1882) Glazebrook, James Maxwell and Modern. Physics (ib., 1896).