Thomson, Sir William (Lord Kelvin). Born in Belfast in 1824. Kelvin was educated at Glasgow and Cambridge. Became professor of natural philosophy at Glasgow in 1846. From 1846 to 1851 Kelvin edited the "Cambridge and Dublin Mathematical Journal," to which he contributed several important papers. Some of his chief discoveries are announced in the "Secular Coating of the Earth," and the Bakerian lecture, the "Electrodynamic Qualities of Metals." He invented the quadrant, portable, and absolute electrometers, and other scientific instruments. In January 1892, he was raised to the peerage as Lord Kelvin. Died 1907.

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