Josiah Willard Gibbs: The History of a Great Mind [Paperback]

Lynde Phelps Wheeler (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 270 pages
• Publisher: Ox Bow Pr (June 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1881987116
• ISBN-13: 978-1881987116
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,280,381 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The best, fairly technical biography of Willard Gibbs, December 7, 1999

By 

Dr David J Bottomley - See all my reviews

This review is from: Josiah Willard Gibbs: The History of a Great Mind (Paperback)

Wheeler has written a comprehensive review which goes into considerable detail about Gibbs's scientific accomplishments, without using unnecessarily complicated language or mathematics. As a former student of Gibbs, Wheeler is well-placed to provide a detailed biography of a man of whom he had first-hand experience. But this closeness must raise questions as to how objective this book is: at times the biography might be overly-eulogistic. This book was first published in 1951. What is needed now is a modern, more objective work. Amongst Gibbs's contemporaries, for example, Lords Raleigh and Kelvin were critical of Gibbs's thermodynamics. This is not mentioned by Wheeler.