William Thomson was among the most prodigious minds in British history. He was responsible for landmark accomplishments in the fields of thermodynamics, geology, and electrophysics, as well as for the invention of numerous scientific devices. In 1892 he was awarded the title Lord Kelvin of Largs; it is by this name that his most influential discovery, the Kelvin scale of absolute temperature, is best known.

Thomson's father lectured at the University of Glasgow; the younger Thomson began attending his father's classes at age eight, entering the University as a student at age eleven. There he studied mathematics, ultimately finishing second in his class. His thirst for knowledge unabated, Thomson enrolled in postgraduate studies first at Cambridge and later at the University of Paris. At the age of twenty-two he was appointed to the newly created chair of Natural Philosophy (an early catch-all label for science) at the University of...