The Correspondence Between Sir George Gabriel Stokes and Sir William Thomson, Baron Kelvin of Largs

This collection of the correspondence between G.G. Stokes and Lord Kelvin provides invaluable insight and information on a period of major historical importance. Stokes and Kelvin helped to bring about conceptual and institutional changes that transformed the science of physics. They and their Victorian colleagues constituted one of the most significant groups of scientists in the history of science. Stokes and Kelvin corresponded for more than fifty years as professors in Cambridge and Glasgow respectively, thus amassing what is easily the largest extant correspondence between two Victorian physicists. The letters range widely over the people, ideas, and institutions of the age, illuminating the histories of Cambridge and Glasgow Universities and the Royal Society of London, as well as developments in electromagnetism, hydrodynamics, elasticity, optics, and X-rays. This collection is well indexed and fully annotated. It will serve as a primary resource for historians, physicists, and researchers in nineteenth century British science and the history of physics.