James Maxwell                                                           
(1831-1879)
 
 
 
        James Maxwell was born on June 13, 1831 at 14 India Street in Edenburgh, a house his parents in the 1820s. A couple of years later , his family moved to their home in Glenlair in Kirkcudbrightshire. Maxwell enjoyed his country upbringing and was described as a very smart and curious young man. When James was eight his mother died and plans for his future changed. He was supposed to be educated at home until he was thirteen and then sent off to Edinburgh University. Instead, Maxwell was tutored by a sixteen year old boy for a while. Soon it became clear that this arrangement wasn't going to work out, so his father sent him to Edenburgh Academy. He arrived at the university November 18, 1841 and attracted the nickname "dafty". While attending the university, he became close friends with P.G Tait who described Maxwell's schooldays-
        "At school he was at first reguarded as shy and rather dull. He made no friendships and spent his holidays     reading old ballads, drawing curious diagrams and making mechanical models. This absorption in such persuits, totally unintelligible to his school fellows, who were then totally ignorant of mathematics, procured him a not very complimentary nickname. About the middle of his school career however he surprised his companions by suddenly be comming one of the most brilliant among them, gaining prizes of scholarships,mathematics, and English verse".

        At the age of fourteen, Maxwell wrote a paper on ovals. He worked on generalizing the definition of an ellipse. Maxwell also defined curves where there are more then one foci. This later evolved into his first book about ovals and those having a plurality of foci. Maxwell later went to Peterhouse,Cambridge in October, 1850 but moved to Trinity where he believed it was easier to obtain a fellowship. He graduated with a degree in mathematics from Trinity college in 1854. One of the biggest achievements of Maxwells was his extent ion and mathematical formulation of Michael Faradays theories of electricity. Maxwell showed that a few "relatively simple"mathematical equations could express the behaviour of electric and magnetic fields and their interrelation.

         Maxwells father became ill in 1856, so he travelled to Edinburgh for Easter vacation of 1856 to be with him. On April 3 Maxwells father died.

        In November 1856, James took up appointment in Aberdeen. The motion of Saturns rings was announced as the subject for the Adams Prize of 1857. Maxwell was interested immediatly. He researched this for the first two years that he was at Aberdeen. He showed that stability could only be achieved if the rings consisted of small particles. This essay won Maxwell the Adams Prize.

        James Maxwell became engaged to marry Katherine Dewar in February, 1858. They married in June, 1859.

        In London, 1862 Maxwell calculated that the speed of progation of an electromagnetic field is approximately that of the speed of light. He then proposed the the phenomenon of light is therefore an electromagnetic phenomenon. Maxwell left Kings college, London, in the spring and returned to Glenlair. He made periodic trips to Cambridge and designed the laboratory which formally opened on June 16, 1874.

        In 1873, the four Particle Differential Equations, now known as Maxwells equations, first appeared in fully developed form in Electricity and Magnetism. Most of this work was done by Maxwell at Glenlair. They are one of the great achievements of 19th century mathematics.

        Maxwells health began to fail in May, 1879. He returned with his wife, who was also ill, to Glenlair for the summer. Maxwell remained cheerful even though his health was going down hill and he was a lot of pain. On October 8, 1879 he returned to Cambridge but by this time he could scarcely walk. Maxwell was one of the greatest scientists ever known. He passed away on November 5, 1879. His doctor, Dr.Paget, said "no man has ever met death more consciously or calmly".

Works Cited

http:// www.history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/mathematicians/maxwell.html.

http://www.elibrary.ca

http://www.physics.qla.ac.uk/introphy/famous/maxwell/maxwell.hml

http://silas.psfc.mit.edu/maxwell/maxwell.html