Magnus Maclean

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

MIEE MICE LLD (1 November 1857 – 2 September 1937) was an electrical engineer who assisted

Lord Kelvin William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (26 June 182417 December 1907), was a British mathematician, Mathematical physics, mathematical physicist and engineer. Born in Belfast, he was the Professor of Natural Philosophy (Glasgow), professor of Natur ...

in his electrical experiments and later became Professor of Electrical Engineering in Glasgow (one of the first to hold such a title). The Magnus Maclean Memorial Prize given to students of electrical engineering is named in his honour. A native speaker of

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...

, he also lectured in Celtic Studies at the University of Glasgow, delivering the MacCallum lectures, in English between 1901 and 1903. These lectures constituted the first official lectures in

Celtic studies Celtic studies or Celtology is the academic discipline occupied with the study of any sort of cultural output relating to the Celts, Celtic-speaking peoples (i.e. speakers of Celtic languages). This ranges from linguistics, literature and art h ...

at the University.

Life

He was born in Fasach,

Skye The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye, is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated by the Cuillin, the rocky slopes of which provide some o ...

on 1 November 1857. He was educated at

Colbost Colbost () is a scattered Hamlet (place), hamlet on the B884 road, in the Glendale, Skye, Glendale estate, overlooking Dunvegan, Loch Dunvegan on the Scottish island of Skye. The two main attractions of this small settlement are The Three Chimn ...

on the island then sent to

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

for secondary education. He then began training as a Free Church minister at the Free Church Training College in Glasgow and also studied at the University of Glasgow. However, her abandoned this after two years and became a teacher in Sutherland. Re-entering the University of Glasgow in 1881 with a Lorimer bursary for Mathematics, and a London Highland Society scholarship. He studied Natural Philosophy (Physics) and Mathematics at

Glasgow University The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in post-nominals; ) is a public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ...

graduating MA around 1883. From at least 1880 he was the personal assistant to

William Thomson, Lord Kelvin William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (26 June 182417 December 1907), was a British mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer. Born in Belfast, he was the professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years, where ...

in his electrical experiments. In 1888 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

. His proposers were

, William Jack, Thomas Muir, and Thomas Gray. In 1899 he became Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Royal Technical College in Glasgow. Glasgow University gave him an honorary doctorate (LLD) in 1919. In later life he lived at 51 Kersland Terrace in Glasgow. Maclean was an active member of Comunn Gàidhlig Ghlaschu. He retired in 1924 and died on 2 September 1937.

Portrait

His portrait by James Raeburn Middleton is held by

Strathclyde University The University of Strathclyde () is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal charter in 1964 as the first techn ...

Publications

*''The Literature of the Celts'' (1902) *''The Literature of the Highlands'' (1904) *''Modern Electrical Practice'' (6 vols., London, 1905), *''Modern Electrical Engineering'' (6 Vols., London, 1918) *(with ), ''The Electrification of Air by combustion'' (1889).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maclean, Magnus 1857 births 1937 deaths People from the Isle of Skye Scottish physicists Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Glasgow People associated with electricity 19th-century British scientists