He showed a extensive knowledge of many scientific fields and was indeed a most gifted person. A fact demonstrated by the fact that he became an undergraduate at Glasgow University in 1835 aged only eleven!!

William Thompson was presented with the title Lord Kelvin in 1866 after he helped to calculate the required thickness of the world's first transatlantic telegraph cable. His achievements and investigations are too great to all be listed here, but some of his achievements include the demonstration of the reversible heat engine, which now forms the basis for refrigeration techniques.

He designed the compass which is now fitted to every British Naval ship and made the first calculation into the age of the Earth. He put this at 100 million years, which wasn't that far off the mark for the time it was made (current estimations are 1000 million years).

During his lifetime Lord Kelvin was showered with honours, but perhaps, most notably a statue was erected in Botanic Gardens in Belfast in 1913. It still stands, just inside the entrance to the gardens, opposite the Methodist College entrance.

Lord Kelvin was born in College Square East, Belfast, and later three houses were combined in that square, including the one in which he was born, and made into one of the earliest cinemas in the City. It was named in his honour as the "Kelvin Picture Palace".