Maxwell's Life                          

James was an uncommon man. Inquisitive from a young age, his sense of wonder and desire for discovery exibited itself early on. He never ceased to ask questions of his parents and, thankfully, they did not discourage him from doing so. He explored the fields surrounding his home in Glenlair, Scotland, usually to bring back some interesting finds; perhaps a plant or rock. His parents did not fail to nurture his growing mind: "look up through nature to nature's God" his mother would say. James' mother died of cancer when he was eight years old, and his father hired a tutor to continue his education. Soon, it was discovered that the tutor was treating James harshly. His aunt convinced Mr. Maxwell to send James to Edinburgh academy, which emphasized Latin, Greek and math. This was only the only the beginning of Maxwell's formal education. Later, as a teenager, he attended Edinburgh University; but when his father discovered that James wished to pursue science exclusively, rather than law, he sent him to Cambridge. (Young Maxwell, left.)

 

 

 

By 1855, the year after his graduation from Trinity, Cambridge (at right), James had begun to explore the realm of magnetism and electricity. James wrote to a friend: "I am reading Weber's Elektordynamische Maasbestimmungen which I have heard you speak of. I have been examining his mode of connecting electrostatics with electrodynamics..." His interest was to lead to an important discovery.

Thanks to The James Clerk Maxwell Foundation and Johannes Hjorth.