| Professor of mathematics at Queen's College, Belfast, and then professor
of natural philosophy at Edinburgh from 1860 to 1901, Tait’s research interests covered a wide field. He is chiefly known for his work on
thermodynamics, but his early work was mainly mathematical, in particular
on the theory of quaternions (a linear algebra consisting of
four-dimensional vectors, the co-ordinates of which are any real numbers).
He also worked on the density of ozone, the kinetic theory of gases,
thermo-electricity - and the flight of golf-balls.
A vivacious correspondent, warm but unsparing in his friendship, Tait
was in constant contact with Thomson for forty years. The Kelvin Papers
include more than a hundred of his letters, written largely in the 1860s
when he and Thomson were together writing their Treatise on natural
philosophy. Referred to ever after as T & T, this work was famous for its
demonstration that energy is the fundamental physical entity and that its
conservation is its predominating property. The letters demonstrate the
closeness of their co-operation in this book; and they are not
infrequently interspersed - at a time, however, when Thomson was much
occupied with the Atlantic cable - with calls from T to T to ‘look alive!’
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