James C Maxwell Biography

James Clerk Maxwell who is famously known as James C. Maxwell is an extraordinary and genius mathematician from Scotland. He was the first scientist who successfully proved the theory of electromagnetic radiations that states that electricity, magnetism, and light are the various aspects of the same phenomenon. For the first time in the history of science, this relationship between magnetism and electricity was established by James C. Maxwell. After Issac Newton's “Theory of relativity”, this theory established by James C. Maxwell is considered as the “Second best unification in physics”. 

In 1865, Maxwell finally published his dynamic theory on the Electromagnetic field that clearly established that electric, as well as magnetic fields, actually travels through the space in form of waves at Hisith the theory, he also proved that the action of smooth up and down movement of the light is due to the presence of the electric and magnetic field in the same medium through which the light is passing. This theory has led to the development of radio waves. Thus he is considered the prime founder of modern electrical engineering. He along with Boltzmann developed a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution theory that statistically describes the various aspects of the kinetic theory of various gases. In 1861, Maxwell was the first person to develop a color photograph that was even durable and has also provided the theory and analysis on the rigidity of the rod and joints framework upon which today many of the bridges and skyways are constructed.

After he laid the foundation within his theories on quantum mechanics and relativity theory there has been a complete turn to the study of physics and it is believed that after Maxwell’s theories a modern era in the field of physics evolved. Thus he is still considered the most influential physicist of the 19th century who has influenced the study of modern physics in the 20th century.

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Image: Illustration of James C. Maxwell 

The Early Life of James C Maxwell

On June 13, 1831, James Clerk Maxwell was born on 14 India street, Edinburgh that is the capital city of Scotland. He was born to his parents, John Clerk Maxwell who was his father and an advocate and his mother, Frances Clay. They met at the late age of 30 and got married by that time period and James Clerk Maxwell was born when his mother was in her 40s. James was their second child as they had a daughter Elizabeth as their first child who unfortunately died when she was an infant. 

His family moved to a quiet neighborhood known as Glenier that was close to the Corsock village that was the part of the historical country called Kirkcudbrightshire when he was quite young. There his parents built a mansion of 1500 acres and started living there. According to James C. Maxwell’s biography, he always had an insatiable inquisitiveness towards everything that was happening around him. According to his parents, he started asking severe questions about anything that moved or made noises when he was merely three years of age. The biologist describes that he has an intense and unparalleled sense of inquisitiveness.   

Education of James C. Maxwell

His mother who was well aware of his potential took his educational responsibility as he belonged to the victorian era where the females took the major lead in guiding and educating their children. By the time he was eight, he had an extraordinary memory that remembered long passages of Milton and the whole 119th Psalm. According to James C. Maxwell’s biography, he could easily recollect the entire verse and the chapter from just listening to the quotations written in the plasm. But his mother soon died of abdominal cancer in December 1839, when he was still eight. Thereafter his mother’s demise his father took upon his early education and appointed a 16-years old male to home tutor him. But he was very harsh and intimidating on little James for being slow. Thus he was soon fired. Then his father and his sister-in-law took joint responsibility for his formal education and they both played a very important role in shaping him up.

He was then sent to one of the most prestigious schools of his time, the Edinburgh Academy where he was not able to fit himself as he stayed away from the city along with his parents in their country estate. He could not adjust with other boys in school as they considered him rustic because of his accent and mannerism. But soon his academic isolation came to an end as he met two boys in his batch named Lewis Campbell and Peter Gunther Tait, both of them later went on to become big scholars as well.

His interest in the study was beyond his school syllabus and textbook. His love for geometry has led him to rediscover the tetra polyhedra much before it was officially taught to him in school. As his interest in art was encouraged by his cousin when he was 10 years old, he won many prizes for scripture biographies but his academic work went unnoticed for a long time. But at the age of 14, he published his first paper in the year 1846 where he described the mechanical way of drawing curvatures with the help of a pair of twine and the other mechanical properties of mathematical curves like ellipses, Carseans Oval and many more with two or more foci that were later presented by James Forbes at Royal Society of Edinburgh. 

In the following year 1847, when he was 16 years of age he enrolled himself to study undergraduate with the University of Edinburgh to pursue his favorite subject, optics and color research. But eventually, as he got a chance to enroll himself with Cambridge University he decided to spend the rest of 3 years of his academics for an undergraduate degree in Cambridge University where he used to devote his free time experimenting with chemicals, electric and optical apparatus that he used to improvise on his own and he finally contributed two papers to the Royal Society of Edinburgh for its transaction when he was 18 just before his graduation that included “Equilibrium of elastic solids” that hugely contributed in his later fundamental experiments and the other one was “Rolling Curve” that he wrote during his time in Edinburgh University.    

Maxwell Theories

There has been a long list of Maxwell theories that had changed the face of physic experiments in the 20th century especially on the Maxwell theories he established on electricity and magnetism. Out of all of them, some of the most acknowledged and widely studied Maxwell theories are discussed here.

1. Saturn Ring: While he was at Marischal he was always pondering and questioning astronomical projections and he was the first person to conclude by his theoretical studies that the ring of Saturn is made of suspended particles that were later confirmed to be true in 20th-century post space probes. For this, Maxwell was later honored with the Adams Award. As Marischal became a part of Aberdeen University, he took a role as a professor at King’s College in London. Until 1865, he taught there but later resigned to start with his own experiments in his hometown Glenlair. But he was associated all this while with Cambridge University and became the founder who established Cavendish laboratory and thus in the year 1870, he was absorbed as the director of the lab and professor of experimental physics.  

2. Electromagnetism: While he dedicated his years of research to colours he made some groundbreaking discoveries on velocity of gases. It was during the time he was in King’s College in London as a professor of physics he comprehended and put tenuous work on electromagnetism and light theories. Michel Faraday who was also a fellow physicist already have established the relationship between magnetism and electricity but Maxwell took his study further to experimentally derive through Vortexes where the theory of the movement of electromagnetic impulses are conceptualized by the wave movement tey form while they travel at a speed of light.

Maxwell Equations: James Maxwell supported his theorem “ Maxwell Constant” by deriving it using mathematical expressions that were introduced in the paper published by the title “Dynamical theory of the electromagnetic field” presented in the year 1864 in the royal society of London. He elaborated his theory in his book named “A Treatise On Electricity and Magnetism” which was published in the year 1873. His other publications include “Theory of Heat” which was published in the year 1871 and “Matter and Motion” published in the year 1877.

Maxwell legacy and Maxwell death

He died in Cambridge, England of abdominal cancer on November 5, 1879. His innovations have changed the face of physics theories and discovery in the 20th century and have given way to developing many modern technologies and innovations based on his concepts of physics and mathematics. His native home has been renovated into a museum that is now renowned as James Clerk Maxwell Foundation.