Page:Lectures on Ten British Physicists of the Nineteenth Century.djvu/13



was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on the 13th of November, 1831. His father, John Clerk, belonged to the old family of Clerks of Penicuik near Edinburgh, and he added Maxwell to his name, on succeeding as a younger son to the estate of Middlebie in Dumfriesshire, which had for generations been the home of a Maxwell. Hence it was customary in Scotland to speak of the subject of our lecture as Clerk-Maxwell; but by the world at large the "Clerk" has been dropped; for instance the magnetic unit recently defined in his honor is not denominated a "Clerk" or a "Clerk-Maxwell," but simply a "Maxwell." His father was by profession an advocate, that is, a lawyer entitled to plead before the Supreme Court of Scotland; his practice had never been large and at the date mentioned he had retired to live on his estate. John Clerk-Maxwell was of a family, many members of which were talented, and not a few eccentric; to the latter class he himself belonged. He took an interest in all useful processes, and was successful in extending and improving the stony and mossy land which had become his by inheritance. The mother of James Clerk Maxwell belonged to an old family of the north of England, and was a woman of practical ability.

Glenlair was the name given to the new mansion and improved estate. Here the boy had every opportunity of becoming intimate with the ways of nature. He traversed the