Waterston, John James (1811–1883)

Scottish physicist who first formulated the essential features of the kinetic theory of gases 1843–45. He also estimated the temperature of the Sun in 1857.

Waterston was born and educated in Edinburgh. He moved to London in 1833 to do surveying for the railways, and then took a job in the Hydrographers' Department of the Admiralty. In 1839 he went to India as teacher of the East India Company's cadets in Bombay (now Mumbai), returning to Edinburgh in 1857 to devote all his efforts to research. His work was repeatedly rejected or ignored, causing him to withdraw from the scientific community.

Waterston's first scientific paper, published when he was only 19, concerned a model which he proposed might explain gravitational force without the necessity for postulating an effect that operated at great distances.

In 1843, Waterston wrote a book on the nervous system in which he attempted to apply molecular theory to physiology. It included several fundamental features of the kinetic theory of gases, among them the idea that temperature and pressure are related to the motion of molecules. He formulated kinetic theory more fully in a paper submitted to the Royal Society in 1845, but this was turned down, delaying progress by about 15 years.

Waterston wrote other papers on sound, capillarity, latent heat, and various aspects of astronomy.