John James Waterston

John James Waterston (* 1811, † June 18, 1883 ) was a Scottish physicist. He is considered a pioneer of the kinetic theory of gases.

Life and education

Waterston's father, George, was a manufacturer of sealing wax and a stationer from Edinburgh, and a relative of the family of Robert and George Sandeman Sandeman. John was born the sixth of nine children in a fulfilling of literature, science and music family. He was educated at the Edinburgh High School, then went to become a civil engineer at " Grainger and Miller " in teaching. His employer encouraged him to attend lectures at the University of Edinburgh. He studied both mathematics and physics under Sir John Leslie and also attended lectures in chemistry, anatomy and surgery and was an active member of the student literary society.

At the age of 19, he published a paper in which a mechanical explanation of gravitation is proposed. In this case, the phenomenon of action at a distance (physics) should be explained with the help of colliding particles and he. Discussed interactions between linear and rotational movements, which should play an important role later in his kinetic theory

At the age of 21 years Waterston moved to London, where he worked as a surveyor for railroad companies and a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers was. Travelling in connection with his surveying work could Waterston little time to pursue his studies, so he joined the Department of Hydrology of the Admiralty under Francis Beaufort. It was Beaufort, the Waterston 1839 for the post of instructor of cadets of the East India Company in proposing. This appointment brought Waterston the advantage of being able to pursue his research.

Kinetic theory of gases

While he was in India, he first developed independently by Daniel Bernoulli and John Herapath his kinetic theory of gases. He published his theory at his own expense in a book with the unusual title Thoughts on the Mental Functions ( 1843). He headed in the correct manner from all the consequences of his premises, for example, that the gas pressure is a function of the number of molecules N, the molecular mass M, and the mean square particle velocity. He received based on the relation:

He also thought about a wave theory of heat, in analogy to the wave theory of light and some experiments of James Forbes and Macedonio Melloni via thermal radiation. His comment that " ... in media mixtures, the mean square particle velocity is inversely proportional to the specific gravity of the molecules " was regarded as the first statement of the equipartition theorem. Waterston realized that the kinetic energy of a single molecule with velocity v is exactly ½ mv2 and that heat and energy are proportional to temperature T. These findings left him following law for an ideal gas derived:

However, his release had little effect, perhaps because of the strange title. He submitted his theory in 1845 of the Royal Society, but it was rejected. Sir John William Lubbock write "This work is nothing but nonsense."

Unfortunately, Waterston had not create a copy of his work, so he had to re-write and try to publish it elsewhere. This work attracted little interest from William John Macquorn Rankine and Hermann von Helmholtz, by which they may have altered August Krönig.

The kinetic gas theory itself was only accepted as Rudolf Clausius and James Clerk Maxwell published her work in the 1850s - the time of Waterston's contributions, however, were already forgotten.

Last stations

Waterston returned to Edinburgh in 1857 and went back on its own physical ideas, but met only the one rejection and failure to take account of the scientific establishment. This refusal was aggravated by his own growing Einsiedlertum and his hostility towards the learned society.

He was still working on topics such as acoustics, astronomy, fluid mechanics and thermodynamics. Finally, he died in 1883 near Edinburgh.

Bibliography

  • JSHaldane The Collected Scientific Papers of John James Waterston, 1928
  • Stephen Brush The development of the kinetic theory of gases: II Waterston, Annals of Science, Volume 13, 1957, pp. 275-282
  • Brush John James Waterston and the kinetic theory of gases, American Scientist, Volume 49, 1961, p.202 -214
  • EEDaub Waterston, Rankine and Clausius on the kinetic theory of gases, Isis, Bd.61, 1970, pp. 105-106
  • Physicist (19th Century )
  • Briton
  • Scotsman
  • Born in 1811
  • Died in 1883
  • Man
Civil engineering John Leslie (physicist)
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