James Prescott Joule was not born on 25th December and did not turn water into wine. However, he was born on Christmas Eve and spent much of his early life turning water into beer. While earning our gratitude, this would not necessarily place him in the ranks of notable alumni of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society (ML&P). This rests on his scientific work, which in another era would almost certainly have merited a Nobel prize, that he was born, bred and lived in the twin cities and was a stalwart of the Society for nearly fifty years. He was born in Salford and lived there, in Whalley Range, Old Trafford, Upper Broughton, and Sale and is buried in Brooklands Cemetery where his grave bears the inscription 772.55*.
He established the law of conservation of energy and determined the mechanical equivalent of heat. He worked on magnetism, welding, thermocouples, telegraphy, and steam power and his lectures included one on life on other planets, including other solar systems then undetected. He was an early photographer (the ML&P then had a Photographic Section).
His statue is in Manchester Town Hall along with that of his tutor, John Dalton. There is a bust in Worthington Park, Sale. A bar in Salford, a Wetherspoon’s in Sale, the SI Unit of Energy, a crater on the moon, a WWI French submarine lost at Gallipoli, and, until recently, a library at Manchester University were named after him. He is commemorated by a plaque in the north choir aisle of Westminster Abbey. He was a member of the ML&P from 1842 to his death and at various times its Librarian, Secretary, Vice-President and President.
Why then does Joule seem forgotten? Has memory lapsed with time? Is the mechanical equivalent of heat estimated by minor temperature changes in a calorimeter boring? Perhaps what Joule discovered, that energy can be neither created nor destroyed but can be converted between chemical, electrical, mechanical energy and heat and that the conversion rate is constant, is so fundamental to our thought that it is not immediately apparent that it had to be discovered, how radical it was in its time and how fundamentally important it remains. The concept of energy did not exist when his scientific work started. His most important work, when even Dalton’s atomic theory was controversial, involved repeated and meticulous calculations in the most modern scientific manner to establish that heat is not a ‘subtle fluid’, perhaps allied to electromagnetic radiation, which occupies matter but a vibration of the atoms of that matter. Joule’s views on heat were initially rejected by the scientific community perhaps not surprisingly as sunlight conveys heat and you may like to wonder why infrared radiation is hot while ultraviolet is not and how latent heat corresponds with the vibration theory.
While 772.55* is the mechanical equivalent of heat in foot-pounds per degree Fahrenheit increase in the temperature of a pound of water, Joule favoured the imperial system (although with a foot of ten inches) but sat on an international committee which recommended the metric system for internationally agreed scientific units.
The Industrial Revolution in Manchester and Salford
In the 1780s Manchester was a market town. The combined population of Manchester and Salford in the mid-18th Century was 20,000. In 1801 it was over 70,000 and by 1841, when it was the leading town of the industrial revolution, over 300,000. While the living standards of the workers were poor, they were probably better than the agricultural life they had left. The upper class of Manchester was largely composed of men who worked for their living or whose immediate ancestors had done so. Mechanisation meant skilled tradesmen were also needed. They founded the Manchester Mechanics Institute, the forerunner of UMIST. While knowledge was sought for its own sake it was also felt to be useful and Joules’ work had economic implications regarding the cheapest form of energy.
The industrial revolution substituted machines for human effort and skill and inanimate for animate sources of power, using new and plentiful raw materials. In Manchester the material was cotton. Britain imported 2.5 million pounds in 1760, 22 million pounds in 1787 and 366 million pounds per annum in the 1830s. Manchester is sheltered from cold north and east winds by hills which catch rain so the many rivers: the Mersey, Irwell, Irk, Roch, Medlock, Tame, Bollin and Goyt never run dry. These provided a constant but limited supply of power which also determined where the mills were built.
Iron steam engines powered by coal were needed for the industrial revolution to expand and enabled the concentration of factories. Large vibrating mills need strong structures. Iron replaced less precise wooden machinery and made iron-framed buildings. The cotton industry led to the rise of the chemical industry for cleaning, bleaching, printing and dyeing. Engineering firms made the machinery for the mills.
The Salford Brewery
His family originated in north Staffordshire and Derbyshire and another branch of the family remained in brewing there. A pint of Joules may still be obtained in Staffordshire. The expanding population probably led Joule’s grandfather, Wiliam, to found a brewery in Salford (where, to paraphrase, so much money was made and so little spent) some time before 1788. By 1798 it was powered by a steam engine and in 1829 was the largest brewery in the twin towns. His second child, Benjamin, whose fourth child was James Prescott Joule, survived to inherit the business.
Until he was 36, Joule worked in the family brewery from nine to six and his scientific work was outside those hours. Brewing in large quantities is itself an industrial process improved by the application of science and technology e.g. the accurate measurement of temperature is a requisite of good brewing. In 1854 the brewery was sold, and his letters make it clear that he was much involved in the sale. He then retired from business and devoted his time to scientific research.
Chronology of Family Life
Joule was born in 1818. He had an active childhood despite the deformity of his spine. Benjamin Joule moved his family from next to the brewery in New Bailey Street, Salford, to Broomhill, Swinton in 1823 and then to Oak Field, Upper Chorlton Road, Whalley Range on 19th March 1843. There he built a laboratory for his son. Joule married Miss Amelia Grimes on 18th August 1847. They honeymooned in Switzerland where he had a chance meeting with his newly made friend William Thomson whose story that Joule had a highly sensitive thermometer with him and was about to measure the temperature at the top and bottom of a waterfall may be apocryphal. After their honeymoon the Joules returned to Oak Field until 9th April 1849 when they moved to a house in Acton Square, Salford. Their third child, a second son, was born on 8th June 1854 and died aged twenty days. His wife died on 6th September 1854, and he returned with his children to his father’s house on 19th October 1854. He never remarried, although at one time he had a romantic relationship with a first half-cousin, Frances Tappenden. His father died in 1858 when he moved to Thorncliffe, Old Trafford, but, as residents not unreasonably (although not in Joule’s view) insisted on the prohibition of steam engines in the deeds, later moved to 5, Cliff Point, Lower Broughton, on 16th October 1868. In 1877 he moved to 12 Wardle Road, Sale, which still stands. In later life he was unwell. He died of vascular dementia on 11th October 1889. His epitaph John 9:4 “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work”.
Joule in person
Reynolds first met Joule in 1869 and describes him as rather under medium height, stout and rounded in figure, neat but common place in dress with no natural grace, a nervous manner and no great facility of speech, shy with those he did not know and open and friendly with those he did. He was venerated by members of the MLP not because of his fame but for the inherent lovability of his character. “Kindly, noble, and chivalrous in the extreme and though modest and absolutely devoid of mere personal ambition yet jealous for the interest of his friends and the Society”. He was indignant with ostentation and quackery but always encouraged those yet unknown.
Joule’s Motivation and Methods
Cardwell attributes Joule’s life’s work to the satisfaction of discovery although it seems more likely that there was a religious inspiration to his work as Joule was deeply religious and believed only God could create or destroy. His scientific work was meticulously modern. He did not form hypotheses to prove but collected data to form a hypothesis, tested for error, checked if alternative hypotheses were possible and performed experiments to check whether they were true or not. He checked carefully for sources of error, particularly systematic, adapted his experiments to deal with error and repeated his measurements many times.
Joule quotes
“Don’t be afraid of being called rash, it is a natural thing for a successful young theorist to be called so. And remember what Sedgwick said, ‘the way to make no errors is to write no papers’”. When some believed science would make war so terrible that it would disappear, Joule stated “I believe war will not only be more destructive but be carried on with greater ferocity…which must eventually deteriorate civilisation itself and render peace impossible … the result being that the weaker is destroyed and a stronger race is established on its ruins.” He felt that while pride helped to obtain wealth and worldly distinction, true science required humility. “A man should commence with the sentiment of his ignorance, that he knows nothing and has everything to learn. He should also have modesty in writing his opinions and always be ready to modify or retract them”. As a reluctant juror “All the worst criminals are invariably outside the walls of a jail”.
The Manchester Literary & Philosophical Society founded in 1781 was the first such society but when Joules’ scientific career began in 1840, there were also the Manchester Natural History Society, the Royal Manchester Institution (now the city art gallery), the Manchester Mechanics Institution later UMIST, the Manchester Geological Society, and the Manchester Statistical Society. Owen’s College, later the Victoria University, was founded in 1851. In 1792 the ML&P founded the Manchester Academy and appointed John Dalton from Cumberland to teach mathematics. In 1793 Dalton joined the society. His atomic theory is important in Joule’s work because the vibration of molecules is heat. In 1799 the ML&P bought its own house, 36 George Street, close to the infirmary and destroyed in an air raid in December 1941. The Society was in Joule’s time largely scientific, but its nature changed as formal scientific institutions developed.
Joule first read a paper to the ML&P in 1841 and was elected a member on 25th January 1842. He was a Council member from a few years after he joined until late in life. In 1844 he became Librarian and in 1846-50 Secretary and was then elected one of the vice-presidents. He was elected President in 1861 and, as the president was then required to retire after two years, subsequently elected president on every possible occasion until his health prevented him accepting office. He recovered and resumed Presidency in 1877-9 but declined office in 1882.
Scientific Theories of Heat
At the beginning of the 19th century the theory that heat was due to rapid movement of atoms of matter was old, but the favoured theory was that heat was due to a “subtle fluid” called caloric. The proponents of the caloric theory of heat held that it could not be generated nor destroyed. Hence in the steam engine heat was not converted into mechanical energy but the passage of heat gave rise to mechanical energy. Similarly, heat could not be generated by mechanical action such as friction.
While Joule made the most accurate measurement of the mechanical equivalent of heat, his real discovery was that, independent of the materials and processes involved including electrical and chemical as well as mechanical, heat and work (or duty as it was then termed) were interchangeable with a fixed ratio between them and heat represented a vibration in the atoms which made up matter.
Chronology of Scientific Life
Joule was educated at home, did not attend university and held no academic posts. He had a number of tutors, of whom John Dalton gave him the desire to “… increase my knowledge by original researches”. In 1847 he was either considered for, or offered but declined, a professorship at St Andrews. After his wife’s death he considered reading for a degree in mathematics at Cambridge. Had he wanted, he would have been offered the first chair in natural philosophy at Owen’s College.
He wrote letters to Sturgeon’s Annals of Electricity in 1838 and gave a lecture to the Royal Victoria Gallery in 1840 on the effect of magnetism on the length of an iron bar. At the end of 1840 he presented an abstract of a paper before the Royal Society of London on heat, electricity and the theory of heat. He showed that the production of heat by an electrical current is proportionate to the square of the magnitude of the current multiplied by the resistance of the wire and this formula I2R applied in all circumstances. The entire paper later appeared in the Philosophical Magazine in 1841.
He read his first paper to the MLP on 2nd November 1841 showing that the heat developed from a battery exactly corresponding with the heat developed by the combustion of the same elements and that a zinc battery driven electric motor would never be as cost-effective as a coal-fired steam engine which converted 10% of energy into work. (NB a horse converts a quarter and in those days there were worries that Britain would soon run out of coal). This was the first time Dalton proposed the thanks of the meeting to the author. The paper was later published in the Philosophical Magazine. He gave another paper on the heat evolved during the electrolysis of water on 24th January 1843. He showed that if the circuit included an engine the work or duty done lowered the heat generated to the same extent. Although Joule is known for the mechanical equivalent of heat, he also experimented with the production of heat not only by electrical currents but by chemical reactions.
In 1843 he presented a paper to the British Association Meeting at Cork in which he first equated heat and mechanical energy. From 1843 to 1847 he performed the famous experiments with paddle wheels to determine the mechanical equivalent of heat. He claimed with the use of highly specialist thermometers, a Vernier scale and a good eye, to be able to measure temperature to two hundredths of a degree Fahrenheit although he had some problems convincing some of his contemporaries of this. His paper “on the changes of temperature produced by the rarefaction and condensation of air” read to the Royal Society on 20th June 1844 was rejected for publication by them but published in the Philosophical Magazine May 1845. It is possible that the Royal Society failed to publish because there was doubt about his ability to measure to one two hundredth of a degree Fahrenheit. However, the accuracies of his estimates show that he could.
In the second of his public lectures, the famous St Anne’s Church lecture in May 1847, perhaps given because of frustration with the Royal Society’s declining to publish, at least in full, his early papers, he announced the equivalence of heat and work which was the first statement of the principle of conservation of energy. He also explained that shooting stars glow because of friction due to their high speed through the atmosphere (the favoured explanation was that they ignited).
In June he presented a similar paper to the Oxford meeting of the British Association and first met William Thomson, later Lord Kelvin and a lifelong friend and collaborator. Their work led to the concept and estimation of absolute zero and the discovery of Joule-Thomson effect which is how refrigerators and heat pumps work. His so far most accurate determination of mechanical current of heat of 772.69 was communicated by Faraday to The Royal Society in June 1849 before publication in 1850 and he was elected a Fellow of The Royal Society in June 1850.
Joule’s later work included a description of the process of welding in 1855 and later the thermoelastic quality of metals. He also explained the reasons for the exact change in atmospheric temperature with height. In the cold winter of 1870-1 he showed the railway companies’ explanations for fractured wheels was wrong. He was elected to the council of The Royal Society in November 1857. In 1857 he also received an honorary doctorate from TCD and from Oxford in 1860. In 1870 Joule received the Copley medal of the Royal Society. (An earlier recipient was Darwin whose true measure, like Joule’s, is not so much that he formulated a hypothesis but proved the theory). He was elected President of the British Association for 1873 and accepted office, but his health gave way. In 1878 he determined the mechanical element of heat as 772.55. In 1880 Joule was elected to the First Court of the Victoria University of Manchester and received the Royal Albert Medal from the Prince of Wales. In 1882 he commented on the ideal shape for a ship’s hull – like a fish. In 1883 in a letter, he referred to three weeks of brilliant sunsets and rises as due to the eruption of Krakatoa. In 1886 he was offered the British Association’s Presidency for the 1887 Manchester meeting, but his health precluded this.
Philip Jones, member of Manchester Lit & Phil
References
James Joule: A Biography by Donald S L Cardwell Manchester University Press 1989
Science in Victorian Manchester: Enterprise and Expertise by Robert H Kargon John Hopkins University Press 1977 (republished Routledge 2017)
Memoir of James Prescott Joule by Osborne Reynolds, Manchester Literary & Philosophical Society 1892