I NOTE that the Royal Bank of Scotland is asking for votes on who should be pictured on its new £10 note (“Two scientists and an engineer are shortlisted for the new £10 note”, The Herald, February 1).

While in no way disparaging the undoubted achievements of Mary Somerville and Thomas Telford, the vote has to go to James Clerk Maxwell. Maxwell. To Scotland’s shame, is virtually unknown in his home country while his achievements are undoubtedly international and of world-changing nature. Ask any passer-by in the street if they’ve heard of Albert Einstein and one will get a positive response: ask about Maxell and you will receive blank stares despite the fact that their radio, television, mobile phones, satellite communication and many other 21st century devices could not function without his discoveries.

Albert Einstein said of Maxwell: “One scientific epoch ended and another began with James Clerk Maxwell.” When Einstein was asked if he had stood on the shoulders of Newton, he replied: “No, I stand on Maxwell’s shoulders.” And Richard Feynman, another of the 20th century’s greatest physicists said: “The great transformations of ideas come very infrequently… we should think of Newton’s discovery of the laws of mechanics and gravitation, Einstein’s theory of relativity, the theory of quantum mechanics and … Maxwell’s theory of electricity and magnetism.”

Surely Maxwell must be the choice if only to increase national knowledge of the man and his importance to the world of today?

Nigel Dewar Gibb,

15 Kirklee Road, Glasgow.