ABSTRACT
When the new natural philosophy came to Glasgow University in 1945, its shock troops, fresh from their victories in radar and nuclear technology, joined a department bearing many outward signs of the influence of Lord Kelvin, who had been professor from 1846 to 1899. The electromagnetic theory of light (as developed by James Clerk Maxwell) represented a profound challenge to Kelvin’s view of the universe. He believed, in the tradition of Galileo and Newton, that a mechanical explanation could be found for all of the phenomena of nature. Einstein’s theory of relativity seems to us today a demonstration of the power of common sense, but when it appeared it provoked a lot of controversy. Historians of crusading times relate that Greek fire used a liquid obtained ‘from springs in the East’.
