In thermodynamics, James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) was a Scottish mathematician, physicist, and is considered one of the core founders of thermodynamics, noted for his 1860 development of the kinetic theory of gases, his 1871 book Theory of Heat, and his 1873 theory of electromagnetism. His various letters, articles, and promotions helped to stitch together the early beginnings of the sciences of thermo-dynamics. [1]

Maxwell used the symbol θΔics for the newly developing science of thermodynamics in his personal communications with Scottish physicist Peter Tait and Irish physicist William Thomson. His studies of kinetic theory led him to propose the Maxwell's demon paradox in a 1867 letter to Tait. [2]

In 1859, after reading the 1857 paper "About the Nature of the Movement, Which we call Heat" by German physicist Rudolf Clausius, Maxwell formulated what is known as the "Maxwell distribution" of molecular velocities, which gave the proportion of molecules having a certain velocity in a specific range. [3] This was the first ever statistical law in physics. [4]

His 1873 publication A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, introduced the world to Maxwell equations, the four governing equations on the phenomenon of electricity and magnetism. Maxwell showed that these equations implicitly required the existence of electromagnetic waves traveling at the speed of light. [5]

References
1. Maxwell, James C. (editors: Elizabeth Garber, Stephen G. Brush, C. W. Francis Everitt) (1995). Maxwell on Heat and Statistical Mechanics: On "avoiding All Personal Enquiries" of Molecules (section II: Documents from Kinetic Theory to Thermodynamics, pgs. 105-170, section III: Documents on Thermodynamics, pgs. 171-288). Lehigh University Press.
2. James Maxwell – Eric Weisstein’s World of Scientific Biography.
3. Clausius, R. (1857), "Über die Art der Bewegung, die wir Wärme nennen" (About the Nature of the Movement, Which we call Heat), Annalen der Physik 100: 353-379.
4. Mahon, Basil (2003). The Man Who Changed Everything – the Life of James Clerk Maxwell. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
5. Maxwell, James C. (1873). A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism (Volume One). New York: Dover.

Further reading
● Maxwell, James. (1873). “Does the Progress of Physical Science Tend to Give any Advantage to the Opinion of the Necessity (or Determinism) over that of Contingency of Events and the Freedom of the Will?”. Publisher.
● Maxwell, James C. (1990). The Scientific Letters of James Clerk Maxwell: Volume II, 1874-79 (P.M. Harman, Editor). Cambridge University Press.
● Maxwell, James C. (1990). The Scientific Letters of James Clerk Maxwell: Volume II, 1874-79 (P.M. Harman, Editor). Cambridge University Press.
● Maxwell, James C. (2009). The Scientific Letters of James Clerk Maxwell: Volume III, 1874-79 (P.M. Harman, Editor). Cambridge University Press.

External links
● James Maxwell – Wikipedia.