Prof 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 letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

MIEE MICE LLD (1857-1937) 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. Professor of Natural Philosophy (Glasgow), Professor of Natural Philoso ...

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 ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...

, he also lectured in Celtic Studies at the University of Glasgow, delivering the MacCallum lectures, in English between 1901 and 1093. 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 Celtic-speaking peoples (i.e. speakers of Celtic languages). This ranges from linguistics, literature and art histor ...

at the University.

Life

He was born in Fasach,

Skye The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye (; gd, An t-Eilean Sgitheanach or ; sco, Isle o 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 b ...

on 1 November 1857. He was educated at

Colbost Colbost () is a scattered hamlet on the B884 road, in the Glendale estate, overlooking Loch Dunvegan on the Scottish island of Skye. The two main attractions of this small settlement are The Three Chimneys restaurant and the Croft Museum. T ...

on the island then sent to

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

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 , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

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. Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years, he did important ...

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

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh 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 established i ...

. 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 ( gd, Oilthigh Shrath Chluaidh) 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 chart ...

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