Scientific Papers

Lord Rayleigh was justifiably renowned for the breadth, clarity and quality of his work, which has had a continuing impact on many fields of modern science. These six chronologically-arranged volumes collect the scientific papers written during his long and distinguished career from 1869 to 1919. His 446 publications embrace 12 disciplines (as classified by Rayleigh): mathematics, general mechanics, elastic solids, capillarity, hydrodynamics, sound, thermodynamics, dynamical theory of gases, properties of gases, electricity and magnetism, optics and 'miscellaneous topics'. Many constitute significant contributions to more than one of these subjects. Even more astonishing, Rayleigh contributed regularly to advances in all but one of these categories throughout his working life. The single exceptional topic - the properties of gases - spans only Volumes 3-5, but includes the work that earned Rayleigh a Nobel Prize. These collected papers include all Rayleigh's significant publications except his book The Theory of Sound.