James Clerk Maxwell (jun 13, 1831 – nov 5, 1879)
Description:
• Full name: James Clerk Maxwell• Born: 13 June 1831
• Birthplace: Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
• Died: 5 November 1879
• Place of death: Cambridge, England
• Nationality: Scottish
• Field: Physics and Mathematics
Maxwell came from a comfortable middle-class background. The original family name was Clerk, the additional surname being added by his father, who was a lawyer, after he had inherited the Middlebie estate from Maxwell ancestors. James was an only child. His parents had married late in life, and his mother was 40 years old at his birth. (See Researcher’s Note: Maxwell’s date of birth.) Shortly afterward the family moved from Edinburgh to Glenlair, the country house on the Middlebie estate.
His mother died in 1839 from abdominal cancer, the very disease to which Maxwell was to succumb at exactly the same age. A dull and uninspired tutor was engaged who claimed that James was slow at learning, though in fact he displayed a lively curiosity at an early age and had a phenomenal memory. Fortunately he was rescued by his aunt Jane Cay and from 1841 was sent to school at the Edinburgh Academy. Among the other pupils were his biographer Lewis Campbell and his friend Peter Guthrie Tait.
Maxwell’s interests ranged far beyond the school syllabus, and he did not pay particular attention to examination performance. His first scientific paper, published when he was only 14 years old, described a generalized series of oval curves that could be traced with pins and thread by analogy with an ellipse. This fascination with geometry and with mechanical models continued throughout his career and was of great help in his subsequent research.
More Pls read here https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-Clerk-Maxwell
Added to timeline:
Date:
jun 13, 1831
nov 5, 1879
~ 48 years