The Irish physicist William Thomson, Baron Kelvin of Largs (1824-1907), was the originator of the absolute scale of temperature and was one of the founders of thermodynamics.

William Thomson was born on June 26, 1824, at Belfast, Ireland. His father taught mathematics and joined the University of Glasgow faculty in 1831. He devoted much of his time to the education of his sons and arranged for them to audit university classes. Thus when William was 10, he matriculated in the university and did well. After a tour of the Continent, Thomson entered Peterhouse, Cambridge, in 1841.

In 1846 Thomson was appointed professor of natural philosophy at the University of Glasgow. He held this position for 53 years. In addition to teaching and inaugurating the first physics laboratory for students in the British Isles, he continued his mathematical and physical studies.

In 1847 Thomson learned of James Joule's work on the relationships between heat and work. In...