John Leslie (physicist)

for other people named John Leslie, see John Leslie

Sir John Leslie (April 10, 1766 - November 3, 1832) was a Scottish mathematician and physicist best remembered for his research into heat

Born in Largo, Fife, Leslie gave the first modern account of capillary action in 1802 and froze water using an air-pump in 1810, the first artificial production of ice.

In 1804, he experimented with radiant heat using a cubical vessel filled with boiling water. One side of the cube is composed of highly polished metal, two of dull metal copper) and one side painted black. Hew showed that radiation was greatest from the black side and negligible from the polished. The apparatus is known as Leslie's cube.

In 1805, he became professor of mathematics at the University of Edinburgh, transferring his chair to natural philosophy in 1819. He was knighted in 1832 and died in Coates.

Works

• An Experimental Inquiry into the Nature and Propagation of Heat (1804)