William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin

About William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin

William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (1824–1907), was a towering figure in 19th-century physics and engineering, earning him an HPI Rank of #627 globally. His contributions fundamentally shaped modern science, most notably through his work on the formulation of the absolute temperature scale, now universally known as the Kelvin scale. A prolific scientist, Kelvin also made crucial advancements in electromagnetism, thermodynamics, and the laying of transatlantic telegraph cables, bridging pure theory with essential industrial application.

Despite this foundational importance, Lord Kelvin commands relatively little modern digital attention, registering only 82K annualized Wikipedia views in 2025. This figure places him significantly under-attended relative to his historical standing, resulting in an Attention Gap of -4x. To illustrate this disconnect, Kelvin receives fewer annual views than Christiaan Huygens, a physicist ranked nearly 250 places lower in importance (#875 HPI), who garnered 218K views.

Furthermore, his digital interest appears to be slightly eroding, evidenced by a -12.0% year-over-year decline in views and a -3% dip in momentum between Q1 and Q3 of 2025, suggesting that the legacy of key electrical science pioneers is increasingly overlooked by today's internet users.