- James Thomson (engineer)
James Thomson (
February 16 ,1822 -May 8 ,1892 ) was an Irishengineer andphysicist whose reputation would have been substantial had it not been overshadowed by that of his brotherWilliam Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin .Born in
Belfast , Thomson was interested inengineering from an early age and served asapprentice at theHorseley Ironworks ,Tipton , and underJohn MacNeill andWilliam Fairbairn . However, he was a sickly youth and much of his time was given to theoretical pursuits in collaboration with his brother and in interpretingJames David Forbes ' measurements ofglacial motion . However, he went on to develop a substantial reputation as an engineer. He invented thedifferential analyzer , an analog computer to solvedifferential equations , in 1876.Bibliography
*cite book | author=Thomson, J. | title=Collected Papers in Physics and Engineering | editor=J. Thomson and J. Larmor (eds) | year=1912
*cite web | author=Smith, C. | title=Thomson, James (1822–1892) | work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography | year=2004 | url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/27312 | accessdate=2006-06-27 (subscription required)External links
* [http://www.archive.org/details/collectedpapersi00thomrich "Collected papers in physics and engineering" (Cambridge University Press, 1912)]
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