An important component of a biography of any great scientist is that the biographer also have deep scientific knowledge. This holds true for Silvanus P. Thompson, a scientist of distinction who authored this biography of Lord Kelvin. Thompson was a Fellow of the Royal Society, President of the Physical Society, President of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, and President of the Illuminating Engineering Society--all within a six year span. He also held the office of president for other scientific organizations. This biography was begun in 1906 and published in 1910. It was re-issued in 1976 by Chelsea Publishing. The work is considered the definitive biography of Lord Kelvin. It includes Kelvin's personal recollections and data. His death in 1907 affected the project by extending the scope of the original work. He left letters, diaries, and other documents that supplemented the existing information. These documents would allow Thompson to create a much more comprehensive account of Kelvin's career than was previously possible.From the Preface by Thompson: ""It has been the author's desire to let documents and letters speak as far as possible for themselves; and if he has not always been able to avoid letting his own views tinge these pages, he has at least endeavoured to avoid attributing to others that which is only his own. Doubtless there are many of Lord Kelvin's former pupils who will find gaps in the presentation of his life and character, as must needs be when the author can himself claim no nearer association than that of disciple. But the disciple of one who was himself conspicuously faithful in little things, must at least try to be faithful. The peculiar and affectionate admiration, amounting in some almost to worship, which characterizes those who had the high privilege of that more intimate association, spreads far beyond their circle to the disciple. Let it be hoped that the affectionate admiration which he too shares may not have warped his judgment.

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Lovers of the Occult and the unusual will love this book. It gives a deep insight into the ancient Japanese tradition of magic mirrors and their connection to the Sun Goddess. In Japan mirrors had a peculiar place in society and spirituality. Mirrors were often decorated and surrounded with flowers like we see icons from the West decorated, and some of them are told to have magical properties. This book digs into the special properties. It seems that due to an old technique some Japanese mirrors can present patterns or images, not to the onlooker but at the mirror's reflection in the room, if the light source is just right.

Rose of the Winds: the Origin and Development of the Compass-Card
By Silvanus P. Thompson
Excerpt
Although the construction of the compass lies outside the scope of this inquiry, some preliminary considerations are necessary concerning the origin of the compass itself; and these must be stated briefly. The mariners' compass, as we know it to-day, consists of a light circular disk or card, beneath which is attached a magnetic needle or system of magnetic needles. The card is provided at its centre with a small cap, by which it is poised movably upon a pin. The whole is enclosed in a hollow box or bowl covered with a flat lid of glass; and the compass box or bowl is suspended within two hinged rings of brass to enable it to conserve its proper horizontal position in spite of any tilting movement to which it is subjected by the rolling or pitching of the ship on which it is carried.
The card is divded out into thirty-two 'points' or 'rhumbs' of equal angular breadth forming a rose or star, and to these are affixed the initials of the names of the thirty-two points. The magnet needle, or system of needles, is affixed to the card parallel to the direction marked NS on the card, so that when left to itself, the card, obeying the directive force which acts on the needle, sets itself in a direction pointing (magnetically) North and South; the several 'points' marked on the card then indicating the several directions that the mariner may know in which way to steer in order to follow his desired course. The card is also usually marked at its North point with a fleur-de-lis or other distinctive sign. The magnetic needle is controlled in its pointing by the magnetism of the earth's globe.
It is no part of the present paper to enter upon the reasons for the irregularities which are found to exist in the directive force of the earth, and which produce those local 'variations' of the compass which the mariner encounters everywhere. Neither is there here any question considered as to the errors or perturbations due to the presence near the compass of pieces of iron on the ship, nor as to those due to the incidental presence of magnetism in the iron of the ship's hull or fittings; nor, again, as to the means for compensating those perturbations or correcting those errors.
The compass, as above described, has remained practically unchanged in all essential particulars for...
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