In thermodynamics, William Thomson (1824-1907) or "Lord Kelvin" was a British physicist and mathematician notable for being the third person to publish a paper on French physicist Sadi Carnot's 1824 heat engine theories, specifically his "On an Absolute Thermometric Scale", and for his behind the scenes efforts in helping to bring together the science of thermodynamics, through his association with Peter Tait, James Maxwell, and William Rankine, among others. Thomson, in fact, coined the terms "thermo-dynamic" (1849) and "thermo-dynamics" in 1854.

Early life
In May 1830, at the age of six, William's mother died. Shortly afterwards the family moved to Scotland, where Thomson's largely self-taught father, James Thomson, had been appointed professor of mathematics at Glasgow University. Four years later, in 1834, William, age 10, and his brother James, age 12, began their studies at Glasgow University. [8]

Origin of thermo-dynamics interest

See main: Thomson’s search for Carnot’s Reflections

In 1839, Scottish astronomy professor John Nichol introduced Thomson to French mathematical physicist Joseph Fourier's 1822 Analytical Theory of Heat. [5] This was his first stimulator as to the nature of heat. In 1840, Thomson came across Edinburgh mathematics professor Philip Kelland's 1837 Theory of Heat, in which it was claimed that Fourier was mostly wrong. [6] In comparing the two, as Thomson told his father, "Fourier is right, and Kelland is wrong." [7]

Thomson developed in interest in the efficiency of heat engines and the paper of Carnot through discussions on the subject with his older brother James Thomson beginning in about 1843.

In 1848, Thomson developed the Kelvin scale of absolute temperature measurement based on Carnot's theories and in 1849 he coined the term "thermo-dynamic". [4] In 1854, defined "thermo-dynamics" as a subject. In 1851 conceived of the "heat death" theory of universal end and, in 1852, gave verbal descriptions of the second law of thermodynamics that there is a universal tendency in nature to the dissipation of energy. [1] In the years to follow this was translated as the "law of degradation" or "law of dissipation of energy". With the publication of Charles Darwin's 1859 Origin of Species, which seemed to imply the existence of a "law of elevation" in nature, a conflict erupted between the phenomenon of evolution by natural selection and the concept of entropy as loosely defined by Kelvin's universal dissipation postulate. [2] In 1874, he christened the now-famous term "Maxwell's demon".

Heat death

See main: Heat death

Thomson also developed the central argument of the “heat death” theory of universal end in which the universe, in its end state, will run down to the point where there will be no more energy available for doing work due to the action of the dissipation of mechanical energy.

The idea of heat death was first proposed in loose terms beginning in 1851 by Thomson, who theorized further on the mechanical energy loss views of Sadi Carnot (1824), James Joule (1843), and Rudolf Clausius (1850). Thomson’s views were then elaborated on more definitively over the next decade by German physicist Herman von Helmholtz and Scottish physicist William Rankine.

Dissipation and the will of animate creatures

See main: Law of dissipation

In 1852, Kelvin supposed that "there is a universal tendency in nature to the dissipation of mechanical energy" and suggested how this tendency might relate to "vegetable life" or to the "will of animate creatures". [1] Soon thereafter, people began to wonder how this universal law of physics related to or contrasted with the universal law of biological evolution as established by English naturalist Charles Darwin in his 1859 Origin of Species.

Thomson on Darwin
Thomson, and his antimaterialist allies, according to Welsh science historian Iwan Morus, regarded thermodynamics as a powerful weapon with which to counter Darwinian evolution. [9] In a series of papers in the early 1860s, appearing shortly after the publication of Darwin’s 1859 Origin of Species, Thomson argued, based on age of sun calculations, that thermodynamics clearly demonstrated that natural selection was wrong.

References
1. (a) Quote: according to “known facts with reference to the mechanics of animal and vegetable bodies” there is “at present in the material world a universal tendency to the dissipation of mechanical energy” and that “any restoration of mechanical energy, without more than an equivalent of dissipation, is impossible in inanimate material processes, and is probably never effected by means of organized matter, either endowed with vegetable life or subject to the will of an animated creature”
(b) Thomson, William. (1852). "On a Universal Tendency in Nature to the Dissipation of Mechanical Energy" (Google Books) (URL), Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh for April 19, 1852, also Philosophical Magazine, Oct. 1852, also Mathematical and Physical Papers, vol. i, art. 59, pp. 511.
2. Adams, Henry. (1910). A Letter to American Teachers of History. Google Books, Scanned PDF. Washington.
3. Thomson, William. (1874). “Kinetic Theory of the Dissipation of Energy” [URL], Nature, April 9, 1874, pg. 441-44.
4. (a) Thomson, William. (1848). “On an Absolute Thermometric Scale Founded on Carnot’s Theory of the Motive Power of Heat” (pgs. 100-06), Cambridge Philosophical Society Proceedings for June 5; and Phil. Mag., Oct. 1848.
(b) Thomson, William. (1849). “An Account of Carnot’s Theory of the Motive Power of Heat – with Numerical Results Deduced from Regnault’s Experiments on Steam”, (127-203) Transactions of the Edinburgh Royal Society, xiv.; Annales de Chime, xxxv. 1852.
5. Fourier, Joseph. (1822). Analytical Theory of Heat (Théorie Analytique de la Chaleur). Cambridge.
6. Kelland, Philip. (1837). Theory of Heat. Cambridge.
7. Lindley, David. (2004). Degrees Kelvin - a Tale of Genius, Invention, and Tragedy, (pg. 19). Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press.
8. McCartney, Mark. (2002). “William Thomson: King of Victorian Physics” Physics World, 02 Dec.
9. Morus, Iwan R. (2005). When Physics Became King (pg. 141-42). University of Chicago Press.

Further reading
● Smith, Crosbie and Wise, M. Norton. (1989). Energy and Empire: a Biographical Study of Lord Kelvin. Cambridge University Press.

External links
● William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin – Wikipedia.