Lord Kelvin (William Thomson), arguably Britain's most eminent scientist
after Newton, spent much of his life in work which led to the
development of today's electrical units and standards. Despite his
influence, there are few biographies of stature (largely due to the
abstruse nature of much of his technical research). This treatment
concentrates upon his work in three phases; discovery of the fundamental
concepts and coding them into universal laws, leading the adoption of
the metric system, and securing worldwide use of units and standards
(now the IEC system).