Thompson , Silvanus Phillips , 1851-1916 , physicist x Thompson , Sylvanus Phillips

Silvanus P Thompson was born into a Quaker family in York in 1851. He became a science teacher at the Bootham School in York, in 1873. He later taught physics at University College Bristol (now the University of Bristol) before becoming Professor of Physics at the new City and Guilds of London Institute in Finsbury in 1878, aged 27. Thompson's research was mainly in the field of electromagnetism and optics, but he had wide interests outside science and was much concerned with technical education. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1891. He is now best remembered for the textbooks Elementary Lessons in Electricity and Magnetism (1890) and Calculus Made Easy (1910). His first name is sometimes spelt 'Sylvanus'.