Mathematical and Physical Papers

William Thomson, first Baron Kelvin (1824–1907), is best known for devising the Kelvin scale of absolute temperature and for his work on the first and second laws of thermodynamics, though throughout his 53-year career as a mathematical physicist and engineer at the University of Glasgow he investigated a wide range of scientific questions in areas ranging from geology to transatlantic telegraph cables. The extent of his work is revealed in the six volumes of his Mathematical and Physical Papers, published from 1882 until 1911, consisting of articles that appeared in scientific periodicals from 1841 onwards. Volume 5, published in 1911, includes articles from the period 1847–1908. Topics covered include thermodynamic and electrodynamic research, as well as some works on issues of geological physics such as the possible age of the sun's heat.

Part I; 96. On the origin and transformations of motive power; 97. On the discovery of the true form of Carnot's function; 98. Discussion of J. P. Joule's paper on 'A Surface Condenser'; 99. Remarks on the interior melting of ice; 100. On the stratification of vesicular ice by pressure; 101. On the thermal effect of drawing out a film of liquid; 102. On the importance of making observations on thermal radiation during the coming eclipse of the sun; 103. On the convective equilibrium of temperature in the atmosphere; 104. On the protection of vegetation from destructive cold every night; 105. On the dynamical theory of heat [thermal dissipation of energy of vibration of solids]; 106. On the dissipation of energy; 107 Dr. Balfour Stewart's meteorological blockade; 108. On the ultramundane corpuscles of Le Sage; 109. On steam-pressure thermometers of sulphurous acid, water, and mercury; 110. On a sulphurous acid crysophorus; 111. On a realised sulphurous acid steam-pressure thermometer, and on a sulphurous acid steam-pressure differential thermometer; also a note on steam-pressure thermometers; 112. On a differential thermoscope founded on change of viscosity of water with change of temperature; 113. On a thermomagnetic thermoscope; 114. On a constant pressure gas thermometer; 115. On the elimination of air from water; 116. On a method of determining the critical temperature for any liquid and its vapour without mechanism; 117. On the sources of energy in nature available to man for the production of mechanical effect; 118. Accélération thermodynamique du mouvement de rotation de la terre; 119. On the efficiency of clothing for maintaining temperature; 120. On osmotic pressure against an ideal semi-permeable membrane; 121. On a differential method for measuring differences of vapour pressures of liquids at one temperature and at different temperatures; 122. Animal thermostat; 123. The power required for the thermodynamic heating of buildings; Cosmical and Geological Physics; part of the universe; 159. On Homer Lane's problem of a spherical gaseous nebula; 160. On the formation of concrete matter from atomic origins; 161. The problem of a spherical gaseous nebula; Molecular and Crystalline Theory.

This collection brings together in six volumes the published articles of the eminent mathematical physicist and engineer William Thomson, first Baron Kelvin (1824-1907). Topics covered include heat, electricity, magnetism and electrotelegraphy, hydrodynamics, tidal theory and navigation.