[3,250-word article] Great Scots: James Clerk Maxwell and Catherine Sinclair. James Clerk Maxwell ranks between Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein in the triad of scientists who have done most to shape the world today. Although less well known than Newton or Einstein, Maxwell’s discoveries have had a profound influence on the way we live. The electromagnetic waves he discovered bring us radio and television and provide the radar which enables pilots to navigate the skies.
He analysed the phenomenon of color perception and verified the three component theory of color vision, which led him to invent the trichromatic process: the principal on which color television works. Using red, green and blue filters, he also produced the first color photograph — of a tartan ribbon.
Of greater significance, however, is Maxwell’s influence on physics. His central achievement was to unify light, electricity and magnetism by his ability to identify these as different representations of a single phenomenon. He was a visionary in that he predicted their existence across a spectrum of light in which other frequencies, higher or lower, might exist.
Catherine Sinclair (1800 - 1864 ) was the daughter of Sir John Sinclair, friend of American founding fathers George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, and author of the 21 - volume edition of “The Statistical Account of Scotland”(1791). Catherine became a celebrated author in her own right, with more than thirty titles to her credit. She also introduced and financed the Volunteer Brigade for the boys of Leith, and opened a school where girls from working class homes were taught domestic work.
Cooking centres were also provided by this great benefactress. The first of these opened in Queensferry Street in Edinburgh and proved so popular that a second was opened shortly afterward in George IV Bridge. For as little as 4/2d, it was possible to have a meal of soup, meat, potatoes and bread.
Nothing, however, perpetuated the name of Catherine Sinclair more than the drinking fountain she gave to the city which stood at the junction of Princes Street and Lothian Road. The Sinclair Fountain was presented to the city in 1859 and was the first in Edinburgh. It proved immensely popular with the Victorian populace, so much so that when in 1873 it was decided it had to be moved due to an increase in traffic, the protest was so overwhelming that the decision had to be reversed.
He analysed the phenomenon of color perception and verified the three component theory of color vision, which led him to invent the trichromatic process: the principal on which color television works. Using red, green and blue filters, he also produced the first color photograph — of a tartan ribbon.
Of greater significance, however, is Maxwell’s influence on physics. His central achievement was to unify light, electricity and magnetism by his ability to identify these as different representations of a single phenomenon. He was a visionary in that he predicted their existence across a spectrum of light in which other frequencies, higher or lower, might exist.
Catherine Sinclair (1800 - 1864 ) was the daughter of Sir John Sinclair, friend of American founding fathers George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, and author of the 21 - volume edition of “The Statistical Account of Scotland”(1791). Catherine became a celebrated author in her own right, with more than thirty titles to her credit. She also introduced and financed the Volunteer Brigade for the boys of Leith, and opened a school where girls from working class homes were taught domestic work.
Cooking centres were also provided by this great benefactress. The first of these opened in Queensferry Street in Edinburgh and proved so popular that a second was opened shortly afterward in George IV Bridge. For as little as 4/2d, it was possible to have a meal of soup, meat, potatoes and bread.
Nothing, however, perpetuated the name of Catherine Sinclair more than the drinking fountain she gave to the city which stood at the junction of Princes Street and Lothian Road. The Sinclair Fountain was presented to the city in 1859 and was the first in Edinburgh. It proved immensely popular with the Victorian populace, so much so that when in 1873 it was decided it had to be moved due to an increase in traffic, the protest was so overwhelming that the decision had to be reversed.
