James Clerk Maxwell

Scottish physicist

• Born: June 13, 1831
• Birthplace: Edinburgh, Scotland
• Died: November 5, 1879
• Place of death: Cambridge, England

Both a theoretical and an experimental physicist as well as a notable mathematician, Maxwell founded modern field theory and statistical mechanics, mathematically describing interactions of electrical and magnetic fields that produce radiant energy, thus confirming the existence of electromagnetic waves that move at light speed. He also elaborated theories of the mechanics and kinetics of gases and a theory of Saturn’s rings.

Early Life

An only child, James Clerk Maxwell was reared by devout Episcopalian parents who, in a generally impoverished Scotland, enjoyed the comforts of Middlebie, a modest landed estate, and other small properties. Though rarely practiced, his father’s profession was law. Between his parents and grandparents, James was a descendant of middle-level government officials, landed developers of small mines and manufactories, and acquaintances of such famous Scotsmen as Sir Walter Scott and the great geologist John Hutton, although none of Maxwell’s immediate kin displayed unusual drive or distinction.

Maxwell’s boyhood was that of a happy, unusually observant, and well-loved child to whom were imparted clear religious and moral precepts that prevailed throughout his life. His health was sometimes delicate, and between his fourteenth and sixteenth years he learned that he was nearsighted and afflicted with a persistent ear infection. Regardless of whether these infirmities were contributory, he manifested a shyness and reserve, a superficial impression of dullness, though not unfriendliness, that remained permanent characteristics.

In his earliest years, Maxwell had no formal education. Clearly, despite his affection for the outdoors, his mother introduced him to John Milton’s works, as well as other classics, and he became a catholic, voracious reader prior to his entrance into the prestigious Edinburgh Academy in 1841. There, for six years, if at first unenthusiastically, he pursued a classical curriculum. Equally important, Maxwell’s father introduced him into the meetings of the Edinburgh Society of Arts and the Royal Society, where he met D. R. Hay, a decorative painter interested in explaining beauty in form and color according to mathematical principles.

Stimulated by his own prior interest in conic forms, Maxwell was encouraged to pursue such inquiries seriously, one result being his receiving of the academy’s Mathematical Medal (he also took first prize in English verse) in 1846. A second consequence stemmed from his introduction to Dr. James D. Forbes, of Edinburgh University, subsequently a lifelong friend, for Forbes sent the young Maxwell’s “. . . Description of Oval Curves, and Those Having a Plurality of Foci” to be included in the Proceedings of the Edinburgh Royal Society the same year. At the age of fifteen, Maxwell, in sum, was already recognized by Forbes and other mentors as an original, proficient, and penetrating mind, confirmation of this coming with publication by the Royal Society of two additional papers in 1849 and 1850, one dealing with the theory of rolling curves, the other with the equilibrium of elastic solids. These achievements came while Maxwell attended the University of Edinburgh, steeping himself in natural philosophy (a Scottish intellectual specialty of great logical rigor), mathematics, chemistry, and mental philosophy.

Life’s Work

Precocious, already credited with natural genius, Maxwell entered Cambridge University (first Peterhouse but soon Trinity College) in 1850. There, he swiftly came under the direction of William Thomson, popularly known for helping lay the Atlantic cable but academically to gain fame as Lord Kelvin, expert on the viscosity of gases and collaborator with James Joule in experiments on properties of air, heat, and electricity and in thermodynamics. Maxwell’s superb tutor, William Hopkins, simultaneously brought discipline and order to Maxwell’s incredible range of knowledge. Graduated in 1854, Maxwell shortly was made a Fellow of Trinity College and was authorized to lecture. By 1856, however, he accepted a professorship in natural philosophy at Marischal College, whose reorganization as the University of Aberdeen in 1860 caused him to move to King’s College, London, still professing natural philosophy. He took with him to London the daughter of Marischal’s principal, Katherine Dewar, whom he had married in 1858. They were to have no children.

Maxwell remained at King’s until 1865. From students’ perspectives, he was a poor instructor; his voice, mirroring his shyness, was husky and monotonal; his explanations were pitched beyond their grasp, particularly when he was lecturing workingmen. In addition, both his wife’s health and his own seemed precarious. Upon arrival at King’s, he had been infected with smallpox, and in 1865 a riding accident resulted in erysipelas, which seriously drained him. Perhaps persuaded by these circumstances, he retired to the family farm at Glenair until 1871, when Cambridge University offered him a new chair in experimental physics. Because the university’s chancellor had presented funds to it for a modern physical laboratory, subsequently the world-famous Cavendish Laboratory, Maxwell devoted himself to designing and equipping it, alternating between spending academic terms there and summers at Glenair. He completed this task in June, 1874.

Contrary to superficial appearances, Maxwell’s theoretical and experimental work proceeded steadily from his entrance into Trinity College until his death. Before completion of the Cavendish, he had converted his London home into an extensive laboratory, and the results of his investigations were both continuous and impressive. They basically fell into seven seemingly disparate but actually related areas: experiments in color vision and optics, which later had important consequences in photography; studies in elastic solids; explorations in pure geometry; mechanics; Saturn’s rings; and electromagnetism and electricity, which began with Michael Faraday’s lines of force and eventuated in Maxwell’s theory of the electromagnetic field, in the electromagnetic theory of light, and, among other electrical investigations, in establishing standards for the measurement of resistance for the British Association.

Maxwell published in each of these seven areas, but he is undoubtedly best known for his works on electricity and magnetism. His papers “Faraday’s Lines of Force” and “Physical Lines of Force,” presented between 1855 and 1861, were seminal studies. Originally confessing little direct knowledge of the field in which Michael Faraday worked, Maxwell nevertheless sought to demonstrate mathematically that electric and magnetic behavior was not intrinsic to magnetic bodies or to conductors, that rather, this behavior was a result of vaster changes in the distribution of energy throughout the ether, albeit by unknown means.

In a 1864 paper titled “On a Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field,” Maxwell further demonstrated that electromagnetic forces moved in waves and that the velocity of these waves in any medium was the same as the velocity of light, thus paving the way for an electromagnetic theory of light. In connection with his many published papers, Maxwell also wrote a textbook, Theory of Heat (1871), a study in dynamics, Matter and Motion (1876), and gathered and edited the Electrical Researches of Henry Cavendish (1879). His own An Elemental Treatise on Electricity was published posthumously, in 1881.

While Maxwell recovered from his erysipelas and remained in good health until 1877, though in his prime, he fell ill again with painful dyspepsia. For nearly two years, Maxwell treated himself and kept silent on his illness. By 1879, when he acknowledged it to physicians, his disease was diagnosed as terminal, and he died at Cambridge on November 5, 1879.

Significance

James Clerk Maxwell is probably the only nineteenth century physicist whose reputation became greater in the twentieth century than it had been in his own century. Rarely have such capacities for inventiveness, exposition, experiment, and mathematical descriptiveness been brought to bear by one man in the physical sciences. He gave new direction and substantiation to Faraday’s work and effected a bridge to the investigations of Heinrich Hertz, who did in fact measure the velocity of electromagnetic waves, confirm that these waves indeed behaved precisely like light, and showed therefore that light and electromagnetic waves were one and the same. Practical evidence of the importance of this work is manifest in modern electronics, in radio, television, and radar.

Maxwell was the effective founder of field theory and of statistical mechanics, with enormous implications for theoretical and tabletop physics, not only for questions that he clarified but also for those that he raised. Similarly, his curiosity about the rings of Saturn led him productively into study of the kinetic theory of gases, adding to the work of John Herapath, Rudolf Clausius, and Joule by treating the velocities of molecules statistically. His conclusions about the nature of light made physical optics a branch of electricity, providing a basis for the study of X rays and ultraviolet light. Even in metallurgy, he was credited with the invention of an automatic control system. In short, his inquiries ranged from the macrocosm to the microcosm and were ultimately knit together and described mathematically in the tradition of Newton.

Bibliography

Campbell, Lewis, and William Garnett. The Life of James Clerk Maxwell. London: Macmillan, 1882. 2d ed. New York: Johnson Reprint Corp., 1969. This remains the most detailed and accurate nineteenth century view of Maxwell. Maxwell’s letters were added in the second edition of 1884. Lifelong friends and associates, the authors supply a full account of his personal life and a detailed review of his scientific contributions as they were understood during the 1880’s. Though in need of intelligent editing, this is an extremely informative study. Readily available in major libraries.

Domb, Cyril, ed. Clerk Maxwell and Modern Science. London: Athlone Press, 1963. Six commemorative essays by scientists who place Maxwell’s contributions in twentieth century perspective. Excellent for general readers; reflective and instructive. Readily available in major science libraries.

Garber, Elizabeth. “James Clerk Maxwell and Thermodynamics.” American Journal of Physics 27 (February, 1969): 146-155. Excellent, readable scholarly analysis of Maxwell’s anticipation and subsequent stimulation of Willard Gibbs’s work in thermodynamics. Readily available in most science libraries.

Harmon, P. M. The Natural Philosophy of James Clerk Maxwell. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. An introduction to Maxwell’s physics and his world view, based upon the author’s lecture series.

Larsen, Egon. The Cavendish Laboratory. London: Edmund Ward, 1962. Places Maxwell’s preparation and subsequent work at this remarkable research laboratory in perspective. Readable. Availability limited to major libraries.

Mahon, Basil. The Man Who Changed Everything: The Life of James Clerk Maxwell. Chichester, England: Wiley, 2003. Sympathetic biography written by a longtime admirer of Maxwell’s work. Describes all of Maxwell’s work in the physical sciences.

Maxwell, James Clerk. The Scientific Letters and Papers of James Clerk Maxwell. 3 vols. Edited by P. M. Harmon. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990-2002. Contains almost all of Maxwell’s correspondence and manuscripts written between 1846 and 1879, including his reference reports to the Royal Society, documents regarding the Cavendish Laboratory, and his letters to other scientists that document his wide involvement in the scientific community.