Lord Kelvin
Address:
Kelvin Way
Glasgow,
Category: Statue
Lord Kelvin, Kelvin Way
Lord Kelvin (1824-1907) was a highly respected scientist and scholar. He was born William Thomson in Belfast, Ireland. At the age of only 12 years old he came to Glasgow and began studying at Glasgow University.
By the age of 22 he had already become a professor, specialising in studies of heat, energy and electricity. Many of the scientific breakthroughs of the Victorian era can be attributed to Kelvin, for example, the scale of absolute temperature is measured in units of kelvin, and he helped make possible the laying of the first ever Atlantic cable.
Lord Kelvin was a professor at Glasgow University for fifty years, and so it is appropriate that his huge statue can be viewed with the great spire of the University behind him as he works on his notes. This bronze statue was erected in 1913, and was made by the artist Archibald MacFarlane Shannon (1850-1913). There is another statue of Kelvin in Botanic Park, Belfast.
