In Time of Light

Born at 14 India St in the New Town Maxwell was interested from an early age in the workings of all things. As a child he was always asking "What's the go o'that?" and his love of nature, natural curiosity and creativity had every chance to flourish on the family estate at Glenlair in Galloway where the family spent his early years.

His beloved mother died when he was 8 years old (at just 48, of he same cancer which would take Maxwell at the same youthful age) and after a suitable tutor proved hard to find in Galloway he returned to the New Town to live with an aunt and was sent to school at The Edinburgh Academy.

Maxwell's Tartan Ribbon

Here at India St Dr Dick Dougal has curated the three monchrome 'magic lantern' plates which Maxwell used in his famous demonstration of Thomas Young's three colour theory of human vision- and which is now known as Maxwell's Tartan Ribbon.

Note, this 'reproduceable colour image' needs painstaking recreation each time it is viewed, using magic lanterns and Red, Green and Blue filters to achieve (remarkably) the same RGB-based system still used in computer and mobile screens and so isn't actually a Photograph. Also, the ribbon ISN'T actually tartan!