Many scientists work on theoretical concepts. But James Clerk Maxwell’s work was unique
because it led to the development of practical inventions like the TV. He changed the world forever. Those aren’t my words, but the words of
Albert Einstein. Einstein was referring to Maxwell’s most
famous discovery: that magnetism and electricity were linked. Without this understanding, many of the technologies
we rely on would not exist. Before we delve into his groundbreaking discovery,
Maxwell's scientific career had begun long before at the age of 14 when he published
his first academic paper. It described an unusual way of drawing geometric
curves using twine. A prominent professor at Edinburgh University
described it as “ingenious”. The paper was important not for its content,
but for the effect it had on Maxwell. It put him on a path to a career in mathematics. Maxwell was born in Edinburgh on June 13,
1831, and grew up in the country, on a big estate his parents built in southwest Scotland. He had an older sister who died in infancy. His mother was nearly 40 when he was born. As a little boy, he was fascinated by how
things worked. When he was two, he pulled a rope in one room
and was amazed that a bell rang in another. Like magic. Or, rather, like science. Then he discovered the wires hidden in the
walls. His mum described him as inquisitive; writing,
“show me how it dooes” is never out of his mouth”. As a boy, he could recite long passages of
John Milton’s poems. He loved poetry and wrote his own later his
life. His memory was so good that he could recite
all 176 verses of Psalm 119. He was a devout Christian - a man of God and
also a man of science. He wrote, "Science is but an image of the
truth, and should speak only so far as it is spoken to." In other words, it cannot provide all pieces
of the puzzle. His mother was responsible for his early education,
but when he was eight she died of abdominal cancer, the same disease that would take his
own life. A private tutor didn’t work out either;
he reportedly beat Maxwell and chided him for being slow. Then, when Maxwell was 10, he was sent to
the prestigious Edinburgh Academy. But he had a hard time fitting in; he was
teased for his homemade shoes, strange country dress, and his strong Galloway accent. His peers called him “Daftie” which is
Scottish slang for “silly” or “foolish”. He was anything but. However, his peers couldn’t understand his
brilliance; Maxwell would draw diagrams they didn’t understand, and make mechanical models
that didn’t make sense to them. Later, at the University of Edinburgh, he
still struggled to fit in. It wasn’t until he arrived at the University
of Cambridge that his talents began to be recognized. His math tutor at Cambridge, William Hopkins,
is reported to have said that Maxwell was the most extraordinary man he had ever met. “...he is unquestionably the most extraordinary
man I have met with, in the whole range of my experience…” When Maxwell later applied for a teaching
position at Marischal College in Aberdeen, Scotland, to be closer to his father whose
health was deteriorating, Hopkins wrote this glowing reference letter: “His mind is devoted to the prosecution
of scientific studies, and it is impossible that he should not become (if his life is
spared) one of the most distinguished men of science in this or any other country.” Maxwell became the Chair of Natural Philosophy
at Marsichal College - what they used to call physics. He headed the entire department at the age
of 25. But his dad would never see him in this role;
he passed away before he took up the position, which was a terrible loss as they were very
close. Maxwell married the daughter of the head of
Marsichal College who was seven years his senior. Their marriage was childless but very fruitful. Katherine helped him with experiments, including
his famous ones on color. He realized that the human eye can only see
red, blue, and green light. Any other colors we see are a mixture of these. Maxwell was the first to show that any color
can be produced by combining three primary colors in appropriate proportions. He calculated the exact amount of red, blue,
and green needed to make any other color. And displayed it on a color triangle. This led to a method for creating color photographs. He proposed that a color image could be created
by taking three separate photographs each with a different color filter: red, green,
and blue. By superimposing the images together, the
full-color image could be reconstructed. His colleague, Thomas Suton, applied this
method to create the world’s first color photograph of a tartan ribbon in 1861. While at Marischal College, he also spent
two years solving a problem that had stumped scientists for 200 years, ever since Galileo
first observed Saturn’s rings. What were Saturn’s rings made of? Nobody had any idea. Scientists thought they might have been solid,
but if they were, the rings should have been breaking up or crashing into the planet. Maxwell used math to show that the only way
the rings could remain relatively stable is if they consisted of many small particles
each independently orbiting Saturn. When the Voyager probes flew by Saturn more
than 100 years later, in the 1980s, and sent back images, they proved he was right. Despite Maxwell’s stellar scientific reputation,
he lost his job when Marsichal College merged with the neighboring King’s College to form
the University of Aberdeen, and his position became redundant. He applied for a Chair at the University of
Edinburgh but lost out to his childhood friend, physicist Peter Tait. Fortunately, his resumé impressed King’s
College London which appointed him Chair of Natural Philosophy in 1860. Before taking up his new position, he suffered
from an attack of smallpox which nearly killed him. He credited his wife with saving his life. A few years later, it would be Maxwell who
nursed his wife back to health when she fell very ill. Maxwell’s biographer and friend described
their marriage as one “...of unexampled devotion.” His years in London were his most productive. In fact, that is an understatement. Einstein, Richard Feynman, and many other
scientists consider Maxwell’s work during this period the greatest discovery of the
20th century. Maxwell discovered that magnets attracting
or repelling each other, or electricity making a lightbulb turn on, are connected. He built on the work of self-educated physicist
Michael Faraday who had shown that a moving magnet could make electricity flow through
a coil of wire. This mysterious interaction between magnetism
and electricity was called “electromagnetism”. Maxwell worked out that varying electric and
magnetic forces could create waves of energy that travel through space without any wires. Like ripples across the surface of the water. He discovered that electromagnetic waves traveled
at the speed of light. Just as there’s a range of different colors
of light, he theorized that light was just one type of a whole range of electromagnetic
waves. And that there are other types that the human
eye can’t see: radio waves, microwaves, x-rays. This paved the way for the radio, microwaves
to heat food, and x-ray machines - pretty much any modern electrical or electronic technology
which relies on the transmission of electromagnetic waves through the air to send and receive
signals. In 1865, Maxwell described all that was known
about the relationship between electricity and magnetism in a set of equations that now
bear his name. Maxwell’s equations also gave Einstein the
tools to develop his most famous theory. Einstein showed that the speed of light never
changes no matter the reference frame, which Maxwell's equations helped establish. For example, if I were to take this ball and
throw it toward you at 20 miles an hour, if you were running toward me, the ball would
appear to approach you more quickly, and if you were to run away from me, then the ball
would appear to approach you less quickly. But that’s not the case with light. If I fire a laser beam at you, regardless
of whether you’re running toward me, away from me, or if you're standing still, it’ll
appear to approach you at the same speed. This revolutionized our understanding of the
universe. It’s no wonder when someone pointed out
Einstein stood on the shoulders of the work of Newton, he reportedly corrected them by
saying, “No, I don’t. I stand on the shoulders of Maxwell.” He even had a portrait of Maxwell hanging
in his office. In 1871, Maxwell became the first Cavendish
Professor of Physics, one of the most senior faculty positions in physics at Cambridge
University. He was in charge of developing the Cavendish
Laboratory, which has since produced more than 30 Nobel laureates. Despite his many scientific contributions,
Maxwell was relatively unknown outside of academia. His work was largely foundational; he helped
plant the seed for future discoveries. He also died when he was relatively young. In April 1879, he began having difficulty
swallowing, a symptom of abdominal cancer which took his mother’s life and would take
his at the same age. Toward the end of his life, Maxwell told a
Cambridge colleague: “I have been thinking how very gently I
have always been dealt with. I have never had a violent shove all my life. The only desire which I can have is like David
(in reference to King David from the Bible) to serve my own generation by the will of
God, and then fall asleep.” Maxwell died on November 5, 1879, at the age
of 48. He was buried in a churchyard not far from
where he grew up, alongside his wife and parents. His headstone is a simple one, not what you
might expect for a man of his stature. Despite his immense contributions to science,
he received few public honors during his lifetime. But over time, he has been increasingly recognized
and celebrated. There’s a popular saying that references
his brilliance. “And God said…Maxwell’s equations…and
there was light.” Maxwell used math to explain the fundamental
principles of electricity and magnetism that paved the way for countless innovations. If you're interested in exploring the power
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