James Prescott Joule’s Birthday

James Prescott Joule (24.12.1818 – 11.10.1889) was an outstanding British physicist who made a great contribution to thermodynamics. He was the first to identify a mechanical equivalent of heat, and later examined thermal effects when liquid was pushed through small holes, gas was pressured and other experiments. These studies brought Joule to open a new law of saving energy. The energy measurement unit bears his name. Following Michael Faraday’s work, Joule turned to electric current thermal effects, which resulted in him opening the law referred to as Joule - Lenz Law today (the Russian physicist Lenz discovered the law independently of Joule in 1842).