James Thomson was an Irish

Irish people

The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

 mathematician

Mathematician

A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....

, notable for his role in the formation of the thermodynamics

Thermodynamics

Thermodynamics is a physical science that studies the effects on material bodies, and on radiation in regions of space, of transfer of heat and of work done on or by the bodies or radiation...

 school at Glasgow University. He was father of the engineer and physicist James Thomson

James Thomson (engineer)

right|300px|James Thomson was an engineer and physicist whose reputation is substantial though it is overshadowed by that of his younger brother William Thomson .-Biography:Born in Belfast, he grew up mostly in Glasgow...

 and the physicist William Thomson, Lord Kelvin

William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin

William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin OM, GCVO, PC, PRS, PRSE, was a mathematical physicist and engineer. At the University of Glasgow he did important work in the mathematical analysis of electricity and formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and did much to unify the emerging...

,

Life

Born on 13 November 1786, he was fourth son of James Thomson, a small farmer at Annaghmore, near Ballynahinch

Ballynahinch

Ballynahinch is the name of a number of towns in Ireland:*Ballynahinch, County Down, a town in Northern Ireland*Ballynahinch, County Armagh, a townland in County Armagh, Northern Ireland*Ballynahinch, County Galway in the Republic of Ireland...

, County Down

County Down

-Cities:*Belfast *Newry -Large towns:*Dundonald*Newtownards*Bangor-Medium towns:...

 (the house was later called Spamount), by his wife, Agnes Nesbit. His early education was from his father. At the age of eleven or twelve he had found out for himself the art of dialling

Sundial

A sundial is a device that measures time by the position of the Sun. In common designs such as the horizontal sundial, the sun casts a shadow from its style onto a surface marked with lines indicating the hours of the day. The style is the time-telling edge of the gnomon, often a thin rod or a...

. His father sent him to a school at Ballykine, near Ballynahinch, kept by Samuel Edgar, father of John Edgar

John Edgar(Rev.)

Rev John Edgar D.D, LL.D was a presbyterian minister, Professor of Theology, and moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ireland in 1842. He was Honorary Secretary to the presbyterian Home Mission during the Famine in 1847....

. Here Thomson soon rose to be an assistant.

Wishing to become a minister of the presbyterian church, he in 1810 entered Glasgow University, where he studied for several sessions, supporting himself by teaching in the Ballykine school during the summer. He graduated M.A. in 1812, and in 1814 he was appointed headmaster of the school of arithmetic, bookkeeping, and geography in the newly established Academical Institution, Belfast

Royal Belfast Academical Institution

The Royal Belfast Academical Institution, is a Grammar School in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Locally referred to as Inst, the school educates boys from ages 11–18...

; and in 1815 he was professor of mathematics in its collegiate department. Here he proved himself as a teacher. In 1829 the honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by the university of Glasgow, where in 1832 he was appointed professor of mathematics. He held this post till his death on 12 January 1849.

Works

He was the author of the schoolbooks that passed through many editions:

• ‘Arithmetic,’ Belfast, 1819; 72nd edit. London, 1880.
• ‘Trigonometry, Plane and Spherical,’ Belfast, 1820; 4th edit. London, 1844.
• ‘Introduction to Modern Geography,’ Belfast, 1827.
• ‘The Phenomena of the Heavens,’ Belfast, 1827.
• ‘The Differential and Integral Calculus,’ 1831; 2nd edit. London, 1848.
• ‘Euclid,’ 1834.
• ‘Atlas of Modern Geography.’
• ‘Algebra,’ 1844.

A paper ‘Recollections of the Battle of Ballynahinch, by an Eye-witness,’ which appeared in the Belfast Magazine for February 1825, was from his pen.

Family

Thomson married, in 1817, Margaret, eldest daughter of William Gardiner of Glasgow (she died in 1830), by whom he had four sons and three daughters. James (1822–1892) and William, afterwards Lord Kelvin (1824–1908), were the two elder sons.

External links

• James Thomson at University of Glasgow
• http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Thomson_James.html

Attribution