“refusing sunlight for more”: Kelvin to Perry on December 13, 1894. Included in Perry 1895a.

Perry’s challenge caused: On his part, Perry asked for the assistance of mathematician Oliver Heaviside, and he published a more sophisticated mathematical analysis of the problem; Perry 1895b.

The overjoyed Kelvin published: Thomson (Lord Kelvin) 1895, Thomson (Lord Kelvin) and Murray 1895. Kelvin based his conclusions also on measurements of the melting point of diabase, a basalt, by geologist Carl Bakus.

Perry concluded his last: Perry 1895c. The entire debate is described in detail in Shipley 2001 and Burchfield 1990.

The phenomenon became known as radioactivity: The discovery of radioactivity is in Becquerel 1896; the discovery that heat is produced is in Curie and Laborde 1903.