LORD KELVIN 200th ANNIVERSARY in GLASOW

The University of Glasgow is gearing up to celebrate the 200^th anniversary of the birth of one of its most distinguished researchers. William Thomson, better known as Lord Kelvin, who was born on 26^th June 1824.

The images above come from the Project Gutenberg EBoook of Lord Kelvin, by Andrew Gray.  I am starting to read it as a friend is preparing a lecture the subject of Kelvin.  He was a graduate in Kelvin's department and recalls some of his belongings on display there.  One item he mentioned was his French horn!

Kelvin's presence is in many places in Glasgow and also in the language to do with his many instruments, inventions, scientific calculations and theories.

Here are some examples taken from my experience of running across him, so to speak, over the years living in Glasgow.

River Kelvin flowing through the city and on through Kelvingrove Park.

This is a statue of him in Kelvingrove Park which is adjacent to Glasgow University where he was Professor of Natural Philosophy for 53 years (1846-1899).

There was a spell in the 1990s when I was often passing this statue when I used the steep stairs to the right of the photo which led directly up to the Rankine Building where the Mechanical Engineering Department was.  I was in and out of there as I head to deal with boxes of Cleanroom Directories. (Actually I had to use the car to deliver these boxes.  It was a nightmare; there was never any place to park and worse still, the 'martinettes' at the Porter's box wouldn't lift the gate or kept you waiting while they finished reading their paperback.)

This is a current publicaity photo which happens to show the bust of Lord Kelvin on the very lefthand side. I remember that bust.  It was very heavy.  Why do I know all this?  Back in the 90-00s I was involved with the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow.  One of my jobs was to help set up the lecture theatre for the monthly lecture.  When it came the month of the annual Kelvin Lecture I offered to collect the bust of Lord Kelvin from the Thurso Street 'stores' where it was kept.  With a furniture trolly I wrapped him in a tartan rug with elastic cords to secure and wheeled him out of the building and into the back of my Volvo estate. Then I did the reverse of this by wheeling him into the McCance lecture room at Strathclyde University and got help to lift him on the to the desk.  

Sculptor:  Bronze bust,  Archibald McFarlane Shannan, Glasgow, 1896