Absolute Zero Discovery Point

On this spot on a chilly winter's night in 1845, while returning from an evening drinking in a local pub, William Thomson, who would later go on to become Lord Kelvin, one of the greatest scientists ever to study at Glasgow University, tripped and fell into the river below. In doing so, he instantly became the coldest thing in the entire universe, and thus the concept of Absolute Zero was born.

As he pulled himself out of the water, Thomson realised he needed to create an entirely new way of measuring temperature to describe just how cold he felt after his unfortunate immersion. He named this the Kelvin Scale in honour of the river which had inspired what turned out to be the most important discovery of his illustrious career. 

This plaque was erected in 2025 by the Lord Kelvin Appreciation Society to mark the 180th anniversary of this fortuitous event.

Or so says the plaque, and if you can't trust a historic plaque, what can you trust?

Well, not this plaque! The concept of an absolute zero was first put about in the 1600s. Calculations in the 1700s and early 1800s had some estimates within a few degrees of the correct value. William Thomson was probably in Paris or in Cambridge, England, during 1845. He did not become a professor at Glasgow University until 1846 (at age 22).

So this plaque is just a little prank by the Glasgow Information and Kultural Identity Taskforce (GalIaKIT), a group that puts up satirical plaques in and around Glasgow.

But one part is quite true: "one of the greatest scientists ever to study at Glasgow University", and a professor there for decades.