It was said that there was nothing the young James Clerk Mazwell couldn’t decode. Curiosity drove him to figure out how locks and keys and other puzzles worked.
Maxwell grew up in Scotland, and his eccentric ways and introverted personality in school made him the butt of jokes among his classmates; they laughed at him and called him “Dafty.”
Soon, however, the combination of his genius for physics, his curious mind, and hard work would come to the fore. At 14, Maxwell produced his first scientific report. He developed equations of ovals that were derived from drawing the objects.
A young Maxwell at Trinity College, Cambridge, holding one of his color wheels. (Public Domain)
Maxwell began teaching and studying at several major universities. One summer, while he was staying with an uncle of a classmate’s minister, he became ill and the family nursed him back to health. Their compassion and care greatly impressed him….