Life and Letters of James David Forbes

A wide-ranging 1873 biography of a Victorian Scottish physicist who was also Britain's 'father of Alpine adventure'.

John Campbell Shairp (Author), Peter Guthrie Tait (Author)

9781108014069, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 June 2010

612 pages, 7 b/w illus. 1 map
21.6 x 14 x 3.5 cm, 0.77 kg

First published in 1873, this co-authored biography of the Scottish physicist, Alpine explorer, and university leader James David Forbes (1809–1868) includes extracts from Forbes' letters. John Campbell Shairp, Forbes' successor as principal of the United College of the University of St Andrews, writes of Forbes' personal, family, and professional life, including his years at St Andrews. Forbes' student and his successor in the Natural Philosophy chair at the University of Edinburgh, Peter Guthrie Tait, himself an accomplished mathematical physicist who co-wrote, with Lord Kelvin, Treatise on Natural Philosophy (1867), discusses Forbes' scientific achievements and contributions. A. Adams-Reilly, a celebrated Irish mountaineer, cartographer, and friend of Forbes, writes of the latter's Alpine travels and his work and interest in glaciers. In Shairp's words, in addition to all of his academic accomplishments, Forbes was also Britain's 'father of Alpine adventure'.

1. Parentage and boyhood
2. Youthful travels
3. College course
4. Choice of a profession, 1930
5. Professorial life
6. Professorial life (continued)
7. Married life
8. Travels, 1826–1839
9. Alpine travels, 1841–1842
10. Alpine travels, 1843–1851
11. Failure of health
12. Life in St. Andrews
13. The close
14. Forbes' scientific work
15. Forbes' contributions to our knowledge of glaciers
Appendices.

Subject Areas: Mechanics of fluids [TGMF]