Glenlair - Home of the Wave
Maxwell enjoyed an idylic childhood with his devoted parents on the family estate at Glenlair, by Parton in Galloway. He loved nature with a passion, both to enjoy and to wonder about and his mother, Francis (nee Cay) tutored him until her early death.
Completed at Glenlair after years of endeavour, 1865's "A dynamical theory of the electromagnetic field" describes fully the interactions between electricity and magnetism, uniting the two forever in an "electromagnetic wave" and also predicts the speed at which this wave would travel.
The strange fact that there is no allowance in the maths for this speed (now known as "c") to vary from one obsereor to another would later lead Einstein directly to the Theory of Relativity.
Maxwell is buried at nearby Parton Church in a small family plot.
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Truly the man with whom the Steam Age ended and our modern 'electronic age' began, Maxwell's legacy in the modern world is literally omnipresent. Yet even in the Wi-Fi era, as his once mystical "Maxwellian waves" increasingly govern our lives, his name is little heard.
The Electromagnetic Wave
Song - James - a peaen to James Clerk Maxwell and his remarkable and inspirational character.
