J G Crowther 
British Scientists of the Nineteenth Century [PDF ebook] 

Originally published in 1935. J G Crowther has chosen five of the greatest scientists of the nineteenth century – Davy, Faraday, Clerk-Maxwell, Joule, Lord Kelvin and examines every aspect of their lives and work. Nineteenth century science appears in a different light from that in which its contemporaries regarded it, and Crowther shows that it is now possible to judge which were the most important discoveries, which the most significant personalities of the period; and how the passage of time has revealed many unsuspected connections between a scientist’s discoveries and the social life and industry of his day.