Tendril of the Hop and Tendril of the Vine: Peter Guthrie Tait and the Promotion of Quaternions, Part I

Abstract

Two days before his death in the summer of 1901 Peter Guthrie Tait gave his son some handwritten notes on quaternions for safekeeping. Though he had distinguished himself in many areas of mathematical physics and had influenced the work of Thomson and Maxwell it was his evangelical promotion of quaternions which would be remembered in the years to follow and it was fitting that his last energies be devoted to the cause.