Lord Kelvin’s atmospheric electricity measurements

Lord Kelvin (William Thomson) made important contributions to the study of atmospheric elec- tricity during a brief but productive period from 1859–1861. By 1859 Kelvin had recognised the need for “incessant recording” of atmospheric electrical parameters, and responded by inventing both the water dropper equaliser for measuring the atmospheric potential gradient (PG), and photographic data logging. The water dropper equaliser was widely adopted internationally and is still in use today. Following theoretical consid- erations of electric field distortion by local topography, Kelvin developed a portable electrometer, using it to investigate the PG on the Scottish island of Arran. During these environmental measurements, Kelvin may have unwittingly detected atmospheric PG changes during solar activity in August / September 1859 associated with the “Carrington event”, which is interesting in the context of his later statements that solar magnetic influ- ence on the Earth was impossible. Kelvin’s atmospheric electricity work presents an early representative study in quantitative environmental physics, through the application of mathematical principles to an environmental problem, the design and construction of bespoke instrumentation for real world measurements and recognising the limitations of the original theoretical view revealed by experimental work

County people - Lord Rothschild

photo by Russell and Sons

Lord Burghersh [Material gráfico] : proof

Resumen: Descripción: retrato de una niña de cuerpo entero y de frente en un campo. Viste vestido con lazo en la cintura y sombrero

Letter from William Boyd to William Tudor,

One letter outlining plans for the funeral of their Harvard classmate, John Russell.

Observation of manganese deposits made during the 1936 transect of C/S Lord Kelvin through the Northern Atlantic Ocean

In May and June 1936 Dr. C. S. Piggot of the Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, took a series of 11 deep-sea cores in the North Atlantic Ocean between the Newfoundland banks and the banks off the Irish coast. These cores were taken from the Western Union Telegraph Co.'s cable ship Lord Kelvin with the explosive type of sounding device which Dr. Piggot designed. All but two of these cores (Nos. 8 and 11) are more than 2.43 meters (8 feet) long, and all contain ample material for study. Of the two short cores, No. 8 was taken from the top of the Faraday Hills, as that part of the mid-Atlantic ridge is known, where the material is closely packed and more sandy and consequently more resistant; No. 11 came from a locality where the apparatus apparently landed on volcanic rock that may be part of a submarine lava flow.

Catalogue of loan exhibition of works by William Blake /

Bibliography: p. 7.

Lord Burghley and Queen Elizabeth

Sequel to Mr. Secretary Cecil and Queen Elizabeth

Select poems of Alfred lord Tennyson,

Mode of access: Internet.

Reports of cases argued and determined in the High Court of Chancery, during the time of Lord Chancellor Sugden. 1843-1844.

Includes index.

Portraits of the seventies /

Includes bibliographical references.

Personal history of Lord Bacon : from unpublished papers /

Mode of access: Internet.

The life of Francis, lord Bacon, baron of Verulam, viscount St. Albans, and lord high chancellor of England.

Manuscript index (4 p.) signed: William Greig, appended to L. C. copy.