Following standard procedure for the time, the paper was first read to the Royal Society on 8 December 1864, having been sent by Maxwell to the society on 27 October. It then underwent peer review, being sent to William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) on 24 December 1864. It was then sent to George Gabriel Stokes, the Society's physical sciences secretary, on 23 March 1865. It was approved for publication in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society on 15 June 1865, by the Committee of Papers (essentially the society's governing council) and sent to the printer the following day (16 June). During this period, Philosophical Transactions was only published as a bound volume once a year, and would have been prepared for the society's anniversary day on 30 November (the exact date is not recorded). However, the printer would have prepared and delivered to Maxwell offprints, for the author to distribute as he wished, soon after 16 June.