James Clerk Maxwell Biography

James Clerk Maxwell (June 13, 1831 – November 5, 1879) is known as the father of electromagnetism. Shy man, curious, religious and amazing intelligence, which led him to be one of the most recognized physicists worldwide. James was born in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. He developed as an only child in a Scottish middle-class family, his father John Maxwell was a prominent lawyer in the city and his French mother, daughter of a renowned naval judge, she died when James was just nine years old because of abdominal cancer, the same disease that would end Maxwell’s life.

During his childhood, he showed to be restless, skillful and very agile mentally, before these abilities his aunt Jane Cay decided to take the responsibility of his basic education inscribing it in the Edinburgh Academy. His performance was exemplary, especially in the areas of physics and mathematics. Although he also won several poetry and English contests.

By 1850 James began his studies at the University of Cambridge, where the eagerness to know and solve in a simple way complicated problems concerning physics generated impression and admiration in his contemporaries. In addition, he was accepted into a major group of the university where he debated various academic and intellectual issues. During his career Maxwell dazzled and aroused all kinds of feelings, for this reason at the end, the prestigious Trinity College in Cambridge offered a place for him, but because of the serious illness of his father due to illness had to give up the square and address to his native land to take care of his father. In 1856, despite the care provided, his father died.

At that time James Maxwell left Edinburgh and became a professor of natural philosophy at the Marischal College in Aberdeen. Marischal College not only gave him the opportunity to develop his intellectual knowledge but also to marry Katherine Mary Dewar, daughter of the director of the university, who is known to have a great interest in physics and who constantly assisted him in the laboratory. His presence in this institution was so relevant that Marischal College commemorated the centenary of his appointment as a professor with a bust prepared by Pilkington Jackson. There are currently two replicas of this bust in the James Clerk Maxwell building of the University of Edinburgh and the James Clerk Maxwell Foundation.

“The science of color must be considered, in essence, as a science of the mind.” James Clerk Maxwell

Years later the Cavendish Laboratory appointed him director, at this time Maxwell outlined his academic life to research and ignored teaching, in this sense, James published two classic articles in the study of electromagnetism, one of them was the Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism (1873). Also, it produced remarkable experimental results in what corresponds to the thermodynamic functions, at this stage of his life the presence of Michael Faraday was very important for him because this scientist of advanced age contributed much to his knowledge, specifically, in the field of electrolysis and the principles of electromagnetism.

From that moment Maxwell advanced studies, and reflected his curious and insatiable spirit, in fields such as physics, mathematics, astronomy, chromatic perception, electromagnetism, heat photography, among others. To illustrate better: he adequately described the interaction between electricity and magnetism through his famous equations, established the concept of electromagnetic wave, created a theory in which he suggested the possibility of conceiving electromagnetic waves in the laboratory, applied statistical analysis to the interpretation of the kinetic theory of gases, enunciated the law of equipartition of energy and also developed a meritorious theory on chromatic perception, developing the treaties of tricolor photography.

Finally, in astronomy, after a period between 1855 and 1859 in which he observed the rings of Saturn and pointed, supported in infinite mathematical calculations, which were not solid or fluid rings, but an accumulation of tiny bodies in orbit, placed that otherwise, the annular system could not be stable. This calculation left the world of science impressed. George Biddell Airy, Royal Astronomer of England and professor at the University of Cambridge, said that this research has been “one of the most extraordinary applications of mathematics to physics I have ever seen.”

“That Maxwell is a genius, he helped me with the theory of relativity.” Albert Einstein

Eight years after his death, in 1876 due to cancer, his postulates on electromagnetic waves gave rise to promote rapid communication and distance, Albert Einstein considered the contributions of Maxwell to science as the most important since Newton’s time.

This man and his intellectual legacy continue to be of great importance and his theories are still studied, in the year 2015, the International Year of Light, a homage was paid to Maxwell and a recognition of his publication on electromagnetism. In short, without their discoveries, we would not have satellites, television, radio, radar, mobile phones. The influence of Maxwell’s study was the platform for most of the arguments of both the modern quantum mechanics of the twentieth century and the theory of Einsteinian relativity.