Andrew Gray (physicist)

For other people of the same name, see Andrew Gray.

Andrew Gray
Born	2 July 1847 Lochgelly, Fife, Scotland
Died	10 October 1925
Residence	Scotland, Wales
Citizenship	United Kingdom
Nationality	Scottish
Fields	Physics Mathematics
Institutions	Private Secretary to Sir William Thomson, Glasgow (1875–80) Secretary to Sir William Thomson, Glasgow University (1880–4) Professor of Physics, University College, Bangor, Wales (1884–99) Professor of Natural Philosophy, Glasgow University (1899–1924)
Alma mater	Glasgow University (MA 1876, DSc, LLD(Hon) 1896)
Known for	"Absolute Measurements in Electricity and Magnetism" (1883) "Treatise on Bessel Functions" (1895) "The Scientific Work of Lord Kelvin"
Spouse	Annie Gordon
Notes
Father of the mathematician and physicist James Gordon Gray (1876–1934)

Andrew Gray FRS FRSE (2 July 1847 – 10 October 1925) was a Scottish physicist and mathematician.

Born in Lochgelly, Fife, the son of John Gray, he was educated at Lochgelly School and studied at the University of Glasgow (MA 1876), where he was appointed the Eglinton Fellow in Mathematics in 1876. Perhaps more significantly, however, in 1875 he became the assistant and private secretary of Professor William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin). He held this post – an official University one after 1880 – until 1884, when he was appointed Professor of Physics at the newly founded University College of North Wales.

In June 1896 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society

He remained in Bangor until 1899, when he returned to Glasgow to become the Professor of Natural Philosophy, succeeding Kelvin on his retirement. He held this chair for twenty-four years, stepping down in 1923, shortly before his death.

Publications

His major scientific publications included works on electromagnetism, dynamics and Bessel functions. He also wrote a treatise on gyrostats.

His FRS candidacy form itemised the following:

• 'Absolute Measurements in Electricity and Magnetism' (1889)
• 'Theory and Practice of Absolute Measurements in Electricity Magnetism' (vol i, 1888; vol ii, in two parts, 1893)
• 'A Treatise on Magnetism and Electricity'
• 'On the Determination in Absolute Units of the Intensity of Powerful Magnetic Fields' (Phil Mag, 1883)
• 'On the Dynamical Theory of Electro-magnetic Action' (ibid, 1890)
• 'On the Calculation of the Induction Coefficients of Coils' (ibid, 1892)
• 'On a New Reflecting Galvanometer of great sensibility, and on New Forms of Astatic Galvanometers,' jointly with T Gray (Proc Roy Soc, 1884)
• 'On the Relation between the Electrical Qualities and the Chemical Composition of Glass and Allied Substances,' Part I, jointly with T Gray and J J Dobbie (Proc Roy Soc, 1884)
• 'On the Electro-magnetic Theory of the Rotation of the Plane of Polarized Light' (Rept Brit Assoc, 1891).

References

• GRAY, Andrew (b. Scotland, 1847 – d. 10 October 1925). (2005). In Who Was Who 1897–2005.

External links

• Works by Andrew Gray at Project Gutenberg
• .