The Physics of J. Willard Gibbs in his Time

SEP 01, 1990

A century and a half after his birth, Gibbs’s work in thermodynamics and statistical mechanics stands out more clearly than ever. The historical origins of this work, however, remain hidden behind his austere and abstract presentation.

DOI: 10.1063/1.881258

Martin J. Klein

Who was the “Mr. Josiah Willard Gibbs of New Haven” who was appointed professor of mathematical physics by the Yale Corporation on 13 July 1871? He was born on 11 February 1839, the only son and the fourth of the five children of Mary Anna Van Cleve Gibbs and Josiah Willard Gibbs the elder, a distinguished philologist and professor of sacred literature at Yale. Although the elder Gibbs worked in a field of learning very different from his son’s, there were common features in their approaches. What was said of the father could well have been said of the son: “Mr. Gibbs loved system, and was never satisfied until he had cast his material into the proper form. His essays on special topics are marked by the nicest logical arrangement.”

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References

1. L. P. Wheeler, Josiah Willard Gibbs: The History of a Great Mind, 2nd ed., Yale U.P., New Haven (1952).
This is the authorized biography of Gibbs and, unless otherwise noted, is my source for biographical information.
2. The Early Work of Willard Gibbs in Applied Mechanics, L. P. Wheeler, E. O. Waters, and S. W. Dudley, eds., Schuman, New York (1974), p. 43.
3. J. W. Gibbs, The Scientific Papers of J. Willard Gibbs, H. A. Bumstead, R. G. Van Name, eds., Longmans, Green and Co, London (1906), reprinted 1961, Dover, New York. Citations of Gibbs’s papers are from this edition.
4. For further discussion, see M. J. Klein, in Springs of Scientific Creativity: Essays on Founders of Modern Science, R. Aris, H. T. Davis, R. H. Stuewer, eds., U. Minnesota P., Minneapolis (1983), p. 142.
5. R. Clausius, Philos. Mag. 43, 106 (1872).https://doi.org/PHMAA4
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10. See ref. 6 and J. C. Maxwell, letter to P. G. Tait, 1 December 1873, in C. G. Knott, Life and Scientific Work of Peter Guthrie Tait, Cambridge U.P., Cambridge, England (1911), p. 115
11. For selected writings by Maxwell, see The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell, W. D. Niven, ed., Cambridge U.P., Cambridge, England (1890).
12. R. G. Osterweis, Trans. Conn. Acad. Arts Sci. 38, 103, (1949).
13. P. Duhem, Josiah‐Willard Gibbs à propos de la Publication de ses Mémoires scientifiques, A. Hermann, Paris (1908).
14. O. Knudsen, in The Michelson Era in American Science, 1870‐1930, S. Goldberg, R. H. Stuewer, eds., AIP, New York (1988) p. 224.
15. L. Boltzmann, Lectures on Gas Theory, S. G. Brush, trans., U. Calif. P. (1964), pp. 274–90. See also ref. 11.
16. H. A. Bumstead, in ref. 3, p. xxiv.
17. M. J. Klein, in The Boltzmann Equation: Theory and Application, E. G. D. Cohen, W. Thirring, eds., Springer‐Verlag, New York (1973), p. 53.
18. A. de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, vol. II, Random House, New York (1945).
See also.N. Reingold, Nature 262, 9 (1976).
19. W. Stevens, Trans. Conn. Acad. Arts Sci. 38, 161 (1949).

More about the Authors

Martin J. Klein. Yale University.