Rankine, WILLIAM JOHN MACQUORN, was born of good Ayrshire family at Edinburgh in 1820, and had his education at the university there. He learned engineering under Sir J. Macneill, and was appointed in 1855 to the chair at Glasgow. He died 24th December 1872. Rankine was an incessant worker, and his books on Civil Engineering, The Steam-engine and other Prime Movers, Machinery and Millwork, Shipbuilding: Theoretical and Practical, and Applied Mechanics were quickly accepted everywhere as standard text-books; and no modern work in the region of mathematical physics has higher value than his contributions to the new science of Thermodynamics, and to the theories of Elasticity and of Waves. His more important papers were collected, with a Life by Professor Tait (1881).
Another side of his nature was seen in his capital humorous and patriotic songs, collected as Songs and Fables (1874).