This temperature scale was designed by Lord Kelvin (William Thompson, 1824-1907). Kelvin was a British inventor and scientist. In addition to his work on temperature, Kelvin invented over 50 devices (including the mirror galvanometer, which detects and measures weak electric fields), discovered the second law of thermodynamics (the amount of usable energy in the universe is decreasing), and wrote hundreds of scientific papers.
Thompson was knighted in 1866 (by Queen Victoria) and named Baron Kelvin of Largs in 1892. Kelvin is buried in Westminster Abbey (London, England) next to the grave of Sir Isaac Newton.
