James Clerk Maxwell was born into a wealthy family in Edinburgh,
Scotland on June 13, 1831. His father was a lawyer, and his mother died
when he was only eight years old.
He attended high school in Edinburgh – Edinburgh Academy – where he
published his first academic paper, ‘Oval Curves’ at the age of just 14.
By this age, he had also completely memorized the Bible. Maxwell was an
evangelical protestant, who believed his religion was a private affair.
Like Isaac Newton, he saw no disagreements between his science and his
religion.
Unable to properly understand the genius in their class, some of the
boys at school gave Maxwell the name ‘Dafty.’ Maxwell was usually
completely unconcerned by this, and made firm friends with Lewis
Campbell, who went on to became a professor of Greek at the University
of St Andrews and Peter Guthrie Tait, who became a professor of physics
at Edinburgh University.
Aged 16, Maxwell entered Edinburgh University for three years, taking
courses in physics (it was then called natural philosophy),
mathematics, and philosophy. He found the courses rather easy, leaving
plenty of free time for his own private scientific research. Maxwell
continued to publish serious scientific papers while studying for his
degree.
Aged 19, he moved to Cambridge University, studying mathematics,
becoming a Fellow of Trinity College when he was 24, sharing the Smith’s
Prize for theoretical physics and mathematics with Edward Routh.
In 1856, aged 25, he was awarded Edinburgh’s highest prize in
mathematics, the Straiton Gold Medal, and in the same year, he was
appointed to the Chair of Natural Philosophy at Aberdeen University,
where he stayed for four years.
During this time he formulated and published his brilliant analysis
of how Saturn’s rings could be stable for a long time. Britain’s top
astronomer of the time, the Astronomer Royal, Sir George Biddell Airy
said of the work:
It is one of the most remarkable applications of mathematics to physics that I have ever seen.
While at Aberdeen, he gave a weekly, free lecture at a working men’s
college. He also married Katherine Mary Dewar, the daughter of the
University’s principal. Maxwell lost his job at Aberdeen when a merger
of University colleges left him redundant.
In 1860, aged 29, he took a professorship at King’s College, London.
In this year, he established that each molecule of air at room
temperature and pressure collides 8 billion times a second with other
molecules on average.
Maxwell stayed in London until 1865, carrying out much of his most notable work.
He then returned to his family home in Scotland for six years, which
he devoted to experiments, calculations and writing away from the duties
his professorship had involved. In 1866 he wrote:
I have now my time fully occupied with experiments and speculations of a physical kind, which I could not undertake as long as I had public duties.
During this time he wrote much of the groundbreaking ‘Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism’, which was published in 1873.
In 1871, he became Cavendish Professor at Cambridge University, where he remained until his death in 1879, aged just 48.
