James Prescott Joule

James Prescott Joule was born on December 24, 1818 in Salford, a suburb of Manchester in northern Scotland. His father was Benjamin Joule (1784-1858), a wealthy brewing, and his mother was Alice Prescott Joule. Joule followed his father to participate in wine-making work since he was a child and had no formal education. During his youth, Joule met the famous chemist Dalton under the introduction of others. Dalton taught Joule passionately, teaching him mathematics, philosophy, and chemistry, which laid the theoretical foundation for Joule's later research. Moreover, Dalton taught Joule the scientific research method of combining theory with practice, stimulated Joule's interest in chemistry and physics, and with his encouragement, he decided to engage in scientific research.

Main achievements of characters

In December 1840, he read a paper on the heat generation by electric current at the Royal Society, proposing the law that electric current generates heat through conductors; because of the change in time.§ç . Lenz also independently discovered the same law, which is called the Joule-Lenz law.

Joule's main contribution was his study and determination of the equivalent relationship between heat and mechanical work. The first paper in this area of research work,"On the Thermal Effects of Electromagnetism and the Work Value of Heat", was published in the British "Philosophical Journal" Volume 23, Series 3, in 1843.

In 1852, Joule and W. Thomson (Kelvin) discovered the phenomenon of temperature drop when gases expand freely, known as the Joule-Thomson effect. This effect is widely used in low temperature and gas liquefaction. He did a lot of valuable work on the development of steam engines.

In 1866, for his contributions to heat, thermodynamics, and electricity, the Royal Society awarded him the Copley Medal, its highest honor. In memory of him, later generations named the unit of energy or work "joule", referred to as "joule"; and used the first letter "J" of Joule's surname to mark heat.

Joule died on October 11, 1889 at Searle's home and was buried in the city's Brooklands, Trafford Cemetery. His tombstone is engraved with the number "772.55", which is the equivalent value of thermal work he obtained in a key measurement in 1878. The tombstone is also engraved with a passage from the Gospel of John,"While it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me; night is coming, and no one can work." (9:4)"'Withersbourne Tavern in Sol was renamed after him.