William Thomson (1824-1907), professor of natural philosophy at the University of Glasgow, was a highly accomplished and renowned man of science who made substantial contributions to several important technologies. He was knighted in 1866 following the success of the telegraph cable laid across the Atlantic, between Ireland and Newfoundland; and raised to the peerage (as Baron Kelvin of Largs) in 1892.
Ref: Silvanus P. Thompson, The Life of William Thomson, Baron Kelvin of Largs (London, 1910), chapter xvii, "Navigation: The Compass and the Sounding Machine."
