Richard Feynman once said that, "From a long view of the history of mankind -- seen from, say, 10,000 years from now-- there can be a little doubt that the most significant event of the 19th century will be judged as Maxwell's discovery of the laws of electrodynamics."
I picked up the book, Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field: How Two Men Revolutionized Physics, by Nancy Forbes, Basil Mahon, in preparation for a trip to Edinburgh last June.
This is the story of a theory and is told through the lives of the two great scientists who worked it all out. It is such an amazing story. But what really struck me the most about the book was learning about how incredibly kind-hearted the two men were. I was thinking about how most biographies of great men and women portray such complicated geniuses, each with their strong points and their weak points. Scientific and artistic geniuses are notoriously difficult people. So, it was really pretty charming to read a story about such lovely human beings, who also happen to be great geniuses. Faraday was perhaps the more extraordinary man given his background. But both were, as the author describes, them pretty much the nicest people you'll ever hope to meet.
I loved the book so much and came to have such affection for both Maxwell and Faraday that I thought it would be fun to visit the James Clerk Maxwell Foundation while we were in Scotland. And so I arranged a tour.
Housed in Edinburgh's New Town, I think the entire area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We remained in the Old City for our entire time in Edinburgh so I wasn't totally prepared to cross the bridge into new town and see before my eyes this incredibly well-maintained and harmonious specimen of Edwardian planned urban development! Arriving in a downpour, the director was late and there was nowhere to find shelter (as you can see). Luckily another resident of the building took pity and let us in. We looked like drowned rats waiting in the hall when Mr Farrer arrived, apologizing profusely for keeping us waiting.
Anyone who knows me will know I have an incredible soft-spot for the playful, quirky, sleepy, and under-produced.
A few years ago, I wrote this post over at 3Quarks on two of my favorite small museums:
CABINETS OF WONDER: THE SHROUD OF TURIN & THE MUSEUM OF JURASSIC TECHNOLOGY
I put both of these places in the company of some of my other favorite museums, like the Brera Museum in Milan (home to one of the most splendid art collections I've seen) or the Saint John Hospital in Bruges (probably my favorite art museum on earth). Like the Groeningemuseum (also in Bruges) and the Sabauda in Turin (which not only lacked audio guides but didn't even have a gift shop!), these museums seem to have more humble aims; that of preserving and exhibiting their collections. In all these places, I found the other museum-goers visiting these galleries to be startlingly enthralled by .... yes, the art. What I am trying to say is that, the entertainment aspect of modern museums have not quite reached these places yet. And it makes for a particularly moving experience.
Well, I can say that the James Clerk Maxwell Museum would fit right in with the above. Housed in the place where Maxwell was born (he did not grow up here, though the house stayed in the family), it is filled with all kinds of exhibits, demos and portraits.
Maxwell was a Renaissance man--interested in all kinds of subjects and Mr. Farrar took great pleasure whipping off the cloth covers off the demos to show us this or that-- especially fun was a replica of Maxwell's color wheel. We saw many portraits of family members (Maxwell comes from a line of very bright men and women) and one highlight that my astronomer loved was the Stairway Gallery of Illustrissimi, a chronological series of engraved portraits of famous physicists and mathematicians, many of which are from the personal collection of Sir John Herschel.
Occasionally, Atlas Obscura says, some of Maxwell’s original experimental apparatus (on loan from Cavendish Laboratory) are also included in the foundation’s exhibits.
Peter Higgs is the honorary patron and they have a wonderful newsletter (Spring 2018 here).
Also if you are interested, this book is kind of fun too: The Scottish Enlightenment: The Scots' Invention of the Modern World, by Arthur Herman
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