Glasgow's miles better: Dublin to Glasgow (Part 7)

The rain threatened as the train pulled into Glasgow Central shortly after 9am. I needed to get some cash for use later in the museum locker (I planned ahead) and then walked across the street to the bus stop. Fifteen minutes later I arrived opposite the Kelvingrove Art Gallery And Museum. I hadn't realised that on Fridays the museum doesn't open until 11am so I had time on my hands (it is 10am most other days). I started to walk towards the park that held the statue to Lord Kelvin (more on him, again, later) when the threatened rain started to descend. I sought refuge in a nearby excellent coffee shop and enjoyed two delicious cups of single origin coffee.

At five minutes to eleven I joined a small queue of people waiting to enter the museum. The museum itself is free, but there is a charge of two pounds (cash only) to deposit bags or coats in the left luggage area on the ground floor. I was happy to leave my coat and suitcase there, and then explored the museum at a fairly concentrated pace.

It is an excellent museum with a collection of modern art as well as historical pieces. The building itself is magnificent, with a large organ that is played at midday. The toilets are also very clean, and there is a cafe.

But the real reason I came to this part of Glasgow was to see the River Kelvin, which runs through Glasgow and flows into the River Clyde. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, the area around the river, Kelvin Grove, was a pleasant semi-rural retreat for city residents. It was admired for its natural beauty, inspiring poets like Thomas Lyle, who published in 1827 “Let us haste to Kelvin Grove, bonnie lassie, O.” This romantic Scottish song, inviting a beloved to walk through the beautiful Kelvin Grove, became known as the "Kelvingrove" tune, the basis for several hymns. 

William Thomson (1824-1907), was made a peer in 1892 by Queen Victoria and he chose the title 'Kelvin' named after the river, which flows by the University of Glasgow where he spent half a century as a Professor. His full title was Baron Kelvin of Largs, due to his family connection with Largs.

In Glasgow, if you are really famous, students put a Dumbledore-esque tarffic cone on your statue.

Just up from the statue of Kelvin, is a set of stairs leading up the University of Glasgow, my father's Alma Mater. This also houses the excellent Hunterian Museum (Scotland’s oldest public museum) containing a fine collection of the patented inventions of Lord Kelvin.

Kelvin specialised in maritime gadgets, and was a very keen sailor. He had less faith in other forms of transport, particularly the novel ideas of flying. He thought heavier than air flight was fanciful, and wrote to Lord Baden-Powell (founder of the Scout movement) telling him just that:

Dear Baden Powell

I am afraid I am not in the flight for “aerial navigation”. I was greatly interested in your work with kites; but I have not the smallest molecule of faith in aerial navigation other than ballooning or of expectation of good results from any of the trials we hear of. So you will understand that I would not care to be a member of the aëronautical Society.

Yours truly Kelvin

"William Thomson to Baden Baden-Powell, December 9, 1896, Correspondence of Lord Kelvin, http://zapatopi.net/kelvin/papers/letters.html#baden-powell."

Year	Contribution	Why it mattered
1848	Introduced the absolute thermodynamic scale (“On an Absolute Thermometric Scale”), giving us the kelvin (K).	Provided a temperature scale independent of any specific substance, anchoring modern thermodynamics and cryogenics.
1851	Formulated the Kelvin–Planck version of the Second Law of Thermodynamics in On the Dynamical Theory of Heat.	Clarified that no engine can convert all heat into work, cementing the link between energy, entropy and irreversibility.
1852	Co‑discovered the Joule–Thomson effect with James Joule.	Showed that most gases cool on throttling, the principle behind modern gas‑liquefaction and refrigeration plants.
1858	Patented the mirror galvanometer (and later the siphon recorder).	Ultra‑sensitive detection of tiny currents made long‑distance submarine telegraphy practical.
1862	Estimated the Earth’s age (“On the Secular Cooling of the Earth”).	Pioneered geophysics by applying heat‑conduction mathematics, provoking debate that eventually led to radioactivity‑based dating.
1866	Scientific architect of the successful trans‑Atlantic telegraph cable; knighted the same year.	His cable‑design rules, testing methods and instruments secured reliable inter‑continental communication.
1872 – 1876	Designed the first tide‑predicting analogue computer (harmonic analyser).	Automated decades‑long tidal tables, vital for navigation and harbour works.
1876	Patented the Thomson (Kelvin) binnacle & dry‑card compass.	Solved magnetic‑deviation problems on iron ships; adopted by the Royal Navy and merchant fleets worldwide.
1879	Identified “Kelvin waves”—coastal & equatorial gravity waves constrained by the Coriolis force.	Corner‑stone of modern atmosphere‑ocean dynamics and ENSO modelling.