Katherine Clerk Maxwell
| Katherine Mary Clerk Maxwell | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | Katherine Mary Dewar 1824 Glasgow |
| Died | 12th December 1886 |
| Resting place | Parton, Dumfries and Galloway |
| Residence | Aberdeen and London |
| Citizenship | British |
| Fields | Physical Sciences |
| Influenced | James Clerk Maxwell |
| Spouse | James Clerk Maxwell |
Katherine Clerk Maxwell (née Dewar) 1824 – 12 December 1886, was a Scottish physical scientist best known for her observations which supported and contributed to the discoveries of her husband, James Clerk Maxwell. Most notable of these are her involvement with his colour vision and viscosity of gases experiments. She was born Katherine Dewar in 1824 In Glasgow and married Clerk Maxwell in 1859. Her contributions are largely recorded in writings on her husband, partly due to a fire at the Maxwell family estate which destroyed many of the family papers. Katherine had no children and died in 1886.
Katherine Mary Dewar was born in 1824 In Glasgow, the daughter of Susan Place and the Presbyterian Rev. Daniel Dewar, Principal of Marischal College, Aberdeen. Little of her early life appears to be recorded.
When she was in her early thirties Katherine met James Clerk Maxwell (7 years her junior) during his tenure as Professor of Natural Philosophy at Marischal College (1856-1860). Her father, Rev. Daniel Dewar developed a friendship with James which resulted in his frequent visits to the Dewar household as well as an invitation to join them on a family holiday. James announced their engagement in February 1858 and they were married in the parish of Old Machar, Aberdeen on 2 June 1859. The couple never had any children.
Before and during their marriage Katherine aided James in his experiments on colour vision and gases. Katherine's observations were valuable to James' scientific work. In his publication in the Philosophical Transactions titled On the Theory of Compound Colours, and the Relations of the Colours of the Spectrum, James records the observations of two individuals. He reveals himself as the first observer labeled J, but describes the second individual anonymously as "another observer (K)." Lewis Campbell confirms that the observer K was indeed Katherine.
The apparatus used in the colour vision experiments is depicted in Fig. 1. It was constructed by joining a 5-foot box (AK) with a 2 foot box (KN) at a 100-degree angle. A mirror at M reflects light coming through the opening at BC towards a lens at L. Two equilateral prisms at P diffract light coming from the three slits at X, Y, and Z. This illuminated the prisms with the combination of the spectral colors created by the diffraction of the light from the slits. This light was also visible through the lens at L. The observer then peered through the slit at E while the operator adjusted the position and width of each slit at X, Y, and Z until the observer could not distinguish the prism light from the pure white light reflected by the mirror. The position and width of each slit was then recorded.
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