Even his retirement was devoted to science
Maxwell moved to Glenlair with Katherine after resigning from his position as head of King's College in London in 1865. A mathematical description of the behavior of governor devices that regulate the speed of steam engines in his paper "On Governors" (1868) laid the theoretical groundwork for control engineering. He explored the stiffness of various lattice patterns in his paper "On Figures, Frames, and Mutual Diagrams of Forces" (1870). He also authored the work Matter and Motion and the Theory Textbook of Heat (1871). In 1871, Maxwell was also the first to employ dimensional analysis openly.
He went back to Cambridge in 1871 and was appointed the first Cavendish Professor of Physics. Maxwell was given the responsibility of managing the construction of the Cavendish Laboratory and the acquisition of the equipment collection. Editing Henry Cavendish's research with several original notes was one of Maxwell's greatest contributions to science. From this work, it is likely that Cavendish researched, among other things, issues like the density of the Earth and the composition of water. In 1876, he was chosen to become a member of the American Philosophical Society.
After performing significant work for five years, Maxwell retired to the family's estate. However, Maxwell still has science to do even in his retirement. He spent a significant portion of his retirement working on a thorough study on electromagnetic. He used gas for other tasks as well. Every summer, he would travel to London to assist with the Cambridge exams and perhaps take a trip to Italy.
