Talk:Josiah Willard Gibbs

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Contents 1 Cemmemorative stamp 2 Gibbs and Heaviside 3 All hail to Willard Gibbs 4 Isolated at Yale?

[edit] Cemmemorative stamp

Gibbs was honored with a commemorative stamp by the United States Postal Service in May 2005 in the series celebrating great american scientists. A link is here:

• Stamp link

Would anyone want to update the article with this information? Also, the brief introduction on the top seems to understate his contributions to thermodynamics. Finally, when you use the GO navigation button on "Gibbs" you are brought to a description of a location in the US. Could we put a disambiguation page up instead?

I've uploaded an image of the stamp to be added to the article Image:Willard Gibbs 2005.JPG. --nixie 03:14, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

In the introduction, I have elaborated on Gibbs' significant contributions to chemical thermodynamics. I also have classified him as a mathematical physicist to represent his broader research interests, while adding to the article more on his founding of physical chemistry. (Note: Most sources I have read classify him as a physicist, mathematician, or both (e.g. mathematician and physicist or mathematical physicist), as his research is far more extensive than physicochemical phenomena (i.e. physical chemistry).) --User:24.253.120.206

[edit] Gibbs and Heaviside

Something needs to be put in this article about Gibbs and Heaviside. These two reformulated maxwell's theories but Heaviside had a more expansive revision and Gibbs a more limited one ... this primarily was from Heaviside being a electrician and Gibbs a chemist. Sincerely, JDR

[edit] All hail to Willard Gibbs

Rewriting this article so that it meets my standard for polished use of the English language is the least I can do to honor a great American scientist who to this day is too little known and honored. I have read that the time is ripe for a new scholarly biography of Gibbs. You scientists seem not to know that Muriel Rukeyser was a significant American poet and woman of letters. Her fascination with Gibbs is a curious one, a fitting subject for an article in the likes of Daedalus or The American Scholar.

I discovered Gibbs's name while doing the chemical thermodynamics part of freshman chemistry. Only much later did I learn that we also largely owe to Gibbs the vector language into which so much of 20th century physics was cast.

I should check the Oliver Heaviside entry as well. He too is insufficiently appreciated.202.36.179.65 22:57, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Isolated at Yale?

As it stands today, this article has the POV that Gibbs was isolated at Yale. The opposite POV is held by Gian-Carlo Rota in his book Indiscrete Thoughts (p.25):

I used to walk through the mathematical stacks of the Sterling Library and pull out books from here and there, as we do in childhood….There were some course notes by Gibbs, presumably handwritten. A few additional sheets were glued to one of these volumes, listing all the notable scientists of Gibb’s time: from Poincaré, Hilbert, Boltzmann and Mach to individuals now all but forgotten. Altogether more than two hundred names and addresses were alphabetized in a beautiful, faded handwriting. Those sheets were a copy of Gibbs’ mailing list. Leafing through in amazement, I realized at last how Gibbs had succeeded in getting himself known in a short time…

Can someone compose an NPOV description including the opposing POVs ?Rgdboer 00:49, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

Good contribution Rgdboer. The majority of the sources, however, do support the argument that Gibbs was essentially unknown, in the greater scientific community. He had a good relationship with Maxwell. Between 1873-1900, his works were obscure to most, and it was only after translation into other languages (about the year 1900), by two different people, that he became known. I'll try, however, to neutral-point-of-view-ify the article, a bit, down the road (using your nice contribution). Thanks: --Sadi Carnot 16:56, 4 February 2007 (UTC)