Born in Edinburgh, 5 July 1820, Rankine pursued a career as a civil engineer. In 1842 published the first of upwards of 80 pamphlets. Much of his most significant work concerned the dynamical theory of heat and energy.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts and in 1843 he became an Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers. From 1844-48 he worked on the construction of the Clydesdale Junction Railway, and in 1855 was appointed Regius Professor of Civil Engineering and Mechanics at Glasgow University.
A major storm in 1856 led to his observations on the stability of chimneys. From 1864 he turned to waves and their action on ships and was appointed consulting engineer of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland in 1865 and became a member of the Committee for Ships of War in 1870.
THE records of the city of Glasgow present a picture of the many-sidedness of the Scottish character. Favoured as it has been and is with the presence and influence of a venerable University, not only has science dwelt and flourished there, but it has been fostered by and in turn has fostered the commercial enterprise and mechanical ingenuity of our citizens. The subject of this short memoir died at the comparatively early age of fifty-two, and yet by the sheer exercise and strict application of his natural gifts acquired a European reputation, and conferred fresh lustre on that University whose roll was already rich with the names of philosophers, mathematicians, classical scholars, physicians, and divines.
William John Macquorn Rankine was born at Edinburgh, 5th July, 1820. He was the son of David Rankine, a younger son of Macquorn Rankine of Drumdow - a well-known family in the county of Ayr - and of Barbara Grahame, one of the daughters of Archibald Grahame of Dalmarnock in Drumquhassle, banker in Glasgow, and his wife, Jean Grahame, who was a sister of Robert Grahame of Whitehill. Paternally, he was descended from the Rankines of Carrick and the Cochranes of Dundonald; and by the mother's side from the Grahams of Dougalston and Birdston, and the Buchanans and the Macfarlanes of that Ilk, and was thus essentially a West-Country man.
He was educated partly at Ayr Academy, partly at the High School of Glasgow, and partly at the University of Edinburgh; but he derived the greater portion of his earlier knowledge of science from instruction received from his father, and from private study, which he pursued with unflagging energy. His knowledge of the higher mathematics was chiefly self-acquired. For some years of his life he gave much attention to the theory of music, and as early as 1836 gained a gold medal for an essay on the "Undulatory Theory of Light." He also studied practical and theoretical chemistry under Reid, botany under Graham, and natural history under Jameson.
In 1838 he gained an extra prize for an essay upon "Methods of Physical Investigation." His acquaintance with general modern literature was extensive and accurate, and extended to the writings of French and German authors. About this time his life-work assumed its definite course, and as a pupil of Sir John MacNeill, he adopted the profession of a civil engineer, which ever after continued principally to occupy his time, and to afford him the highest pleasure. Amongst his fellow-students under Sir John MacNeill appear the names of Hemans, Bazalgette, Le Fanu, Blakiston, John Moffat, and J. S. Stawell.
In 1839, 1840, and 1841 he was employed by Sir John MacNeill in various schemes for water works and harbour works in Ireland, and in the construction of the Dublin and Drogheda Railway, where he invented "Rankine's" method of setting out curves by a combination of chaining and angles at circumference.
In 1842 he published his first pamphlet, founded upon a suggestion of his father's, called "An Experimental Inquiry into the Advantages of Cylindrical Wheels on Railways." In that year he applied his scientific knowledge to the loyal bonfire erected under his superintendence upon Arthur's Seat when Her Majesty visited Edinburgh. It was constructed with radiating air passages under the fuel. In 1842 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts, and in 1843 an Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers.
From 1844 to 1848 he was employed under Locke & Errington in the construction of the Clydesdale Junction Railway, and subsequently upon various schemes promoted by the Caledonian Railway Company. In 1845-6 he engineered the proposed Edinburgh and Leith Water Works, which scheme was defeated by the opposition of the Edinburgh Water Company. In 1849 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 1850 he acted as secretary to Section A of the British Association, met at Edinburgh under the presidency of Sir David Brewster. In 1852, he, in conjunction with the late John Thomson, C.E. (son of the late Professor William Thomson of Glasgow University), engineered a water supply for Glasgow from Loch Katrine. This scheme, as Professor Rankine pointed out, was first proposed in 1845 by his friends, Mr. Lewis Gordon (whose Chair at Glasgow University he afterwards filled) and Mr. Laurence Hill, jun., C.E.(*) In the same year he was elected a member of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow, and in 1853 a Fellow of the Royal Society of London.
In 1854 he was awarded the Keith Medal of the Royal Society of Edinburgh for researches in thermo-dynamics. In 1855 he was appointed one of the Visitors of Edinburgh Observatory; and in November of the same year, Regius Professor of Civil Engineering and Mechanics in the University of Glasgow.
In 1856 a remarkable storm occurred, which drew his attention to the stability of chimneys, and led to important practical operations. In 1856 he received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Trinity College, Dublin, and delivered the opening address as the first President of the Institution of Engineers in Scotland. In the autumn of this year his attention was called to the skin-resistance of ships, and he elaborated a theory based upon experiments furnished by his friend, Mr. J. R. Napier of this city. In the previous year he had made arrangements to publish a treatise upon shipbuilding, which afterwards took a practical shape in 1861, and appeared from the press of Mr. William Mackenzie in 1866, to which he acted as general editor, and to which he was a principal contributor.
In 1858 he published the first edition of "Applied Mechanics"; and in 1859 the "Manual of the Steam Engine and other Prime Movers." In this year he entered, with his customary energy and zeal, into the great Volunteer movement, and was commissioned as Captain of the 2nd Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers. In that capacity he was in attendance on Her Majesty at the opening of the Loch Katrine Water Works, and subsequently, as Major of the 1st Regiment, he was present, commanding the 2nd Battalion, at the memorable review of the Scotch Volunteers by Her Majesty and the late Prince Consort at Edinburgh. He attended a course of musketry instruction at Hythe for the purpose of qualifying himself to assist in the instruction of the corps, and we mention the fact to show how thoroughly he pursued all the objects which he took up, even when he had special subjects requiring and receiving deep and unremitting attention. In 1861 he finished his "Manual of Civil Engineering," and published it in 1862. In the latter year he acted as a juror in Class VIII., "Machinery in General," at the International Exhibition in London. In 1863 he was awarded the gold medal of the Institution of Engineers in Scotland for a paper upon the "Liquefaction of Steam."
In 1864 he directed his attention to waves and their action, and the rolling of ships, and made a trip amongst the Western Islands for the purpose of observation; and he lectured in the same year to the Royal School of Naval Architecture upon the "Strength of Materials," and again, in 1865, on "Resistance of Fluids." In the latter year he was appointed consulting engineer of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, and from that time became a regular contributor to the pages of "The Engineer." In 1866 appeared "Shipbuilding - Theoretical and Practical," of which the joint authors were Isaac Watts, C.B., F. K. Barnes, J. R. Napier, and himself - he acting also in the capacity of editor. In 1867 and 1868 he again lectured to the Royal School of Naval Architecture, and in the latter year he was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Sweden. In 1869 he published "Machinery and Millwork." In 1870 he finished a memoir of his friend Mr. John Elder, the famous engineer, which was not, however, published until 1872; and in December, 1870, he was appointed a member of the Committee for Ships of War. In 1871 he was elected a Vice-President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 1872, along with Dr. Stevenson Macadam, he examined and reported into the causes of explosions in grain mills, in connection with the disaster at the Tradeston Mills, the theory of which is now under scientific discussion.
The number of Rankine's scientific papers seems absolutely enormous, when we consider the minute and scrupulous care with which he attended to every point of detail in the writing and printing of them. How he managed, in addition to these, to find time for the composition of his many massive (not heavy) and elaborate volumes - all marked with the most striking stamp of originality - and for his numerous, almost weekly, communications to "The Engineer" and other professional papers, must always remain matter for conjecture. In the Royal Society's splendid "Catalogue of Scientific Papers" we find that from 1843 to 1864 (both inclusive) he published, in recognized scientific journals alone, upwards of eighty papers - many of these being exhaustive essays on mathematical or physical questions, and all, save one or two, containing genuine contributions to the advance of science. Leaving out of account the more strictly professional of these papers, we find among the titles of the rest such heads as the following:- "Molecular Vortices," "Elasticity of Solids," "Isorthopic Axes," "Compressibility of Water at Different Temperatures," "Centrifugal Theory of Elasticity," "Oscillatory Theory of Light," "General Law of Transformation of Energy," "Plane Water Lines," "Oogenous Neoids," etc., etc.
Unquestionably the greatest work of Rankine's is contained in his numerous papers bearing on the Dynamical Theory of Heat, and on Energy generally. As Sir William Thomson has remarked, even the mere title of his earliest paper on this subject, "Molecular Vortices," is an important contribution to physical science.
The application of the doctrine, that heat and work are convertible, to the discovery of new relations among the properties of bodies was made about the same time by three scientific men - Thomson, Rankine, and Clausius.
Of these, Thomson cleared the way for the new theory by his account of the almost forgotten work of Carnot on the "Motive Power of Heat." This very important investigation was published in 1824, when the world of science was not prepared for its reception, and had been allowed to drop out of notice. Thomson gave a very full abstract of its contents in the "Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh," 1849, and pointed out that they would require modification if the new theory were adopted; as Carnot had throughout assumed that heat is a substance, and therefore indestructible. He pointed out, however, that Carnot's method was capable of giving an absolute definition of temperature, independent, that is, of the properties of any particular substance. He also experimentally verified a deduction made by his brother, James Thomson (from Carnot's theory), as to the alteration of the freezing-point by pressure.
Rankine (late in 1849) and Clausius (early in 1850) took the first step towards the formation of a true theory of the action of heat on bodies, by showing (by perfectly different modes of attacking the question) the nature of the modifications which Carnot's theory required. Thomson, in 1851, put the foundations of the theory in the form they have since retained.
In Rankine's paper of 1849 he applied the theory to the determination of the relation between the latent heat of steam and its density, and made a very remarkable prediction of the true value of the specific heat of air, at a time when the experimental results which were considered the best were far from the truth. Rankine's result was soon after verified by the experimental researches of Joule and Regnault. He also showed that saturated steam, pressing out a piston in a vessel impervious to heat, must cool so as to keep constantly at the temperature of saturation; and that, besides, a portion of it liquefies.
At the time of his death, and for some time previously, he was engaged on new editions of former works, and laying the foundation of future publications, in what was so essentially his peculiar field.
Of himself, apart from his scientific labours, it is at once a delight and a pain to speak. His unfailing amiability of temper, the generosity of his mind, and the warmth of his affections, made him as dear in the circle of his friends as he was distinguished in the world of science.
Always ready to entertain or to be entertained, his contributions of song and story will not soon be forgotten. A collection of some of these, called "Songs and Fables," illustrated by an old friend, Mrs. Blackburn, were published after his death by Mr. MacLehose. Speaking of Rankine's fun and sense of humour and pathos, the "Scotsman," reviewing the volume, says, "The tones of Macquorn's harp were various, and to the extent to while he played them he was master of all. Try him by a severe test: Thackeray's Irish Ballads, especially his immortal 'Battle of Limerick,' were among his most brilliant successes; yet, though there may be a resemblance, and therefore a seeming rivalry, we say that not far behind comes Rankine's 'Ode in Praise of the City of Mullingar.' . . . . In quite another strain, this stirs like the sound of a trumpet:- 'They never shall have Gibraltar . . . . Though, alas, no more shall hearts be made to bound and emphasizing fists to descend at the thundering 'No' set forth by the poet's own manly voice, yet it may be hoped that this song will continue to be heard, and its sentiment ratified and chorused, at many a table through many a year. In other styles there are other things as good - especially good are 'The Coachman of the Skylark,' and 'The Engine-driver to his Engine."'
His father, mother, and only brother all predeceased him, and he himself died unmarried leaving his name writ large in the red book of scientific labour, and to those who knew him, the pleasant memory of an amiable companion, a true gentleman, and an unselfish and steadfast friend.
(*) Rankine felt very keenly that Lewis Gordon and Laurence Hill's original idea was never properly acknowledged.
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