Mechanical equivalent of heat found by James Joule

Historical Context Note

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)
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James Joule was a brewer by trade and a keen physicist. In 1843 he published the results of some experiments, which proved that heat was produced by mechanical movement. This contradicted the prevailing theory that heat could be neither created nor destroyed. His identification of the relationship between mechanical work and heat enabled the theory of the conservation of energy, and thus eventually led to the first law of thermodynamics.

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Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Mechanical equivalent of heat found by James Joule". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 August 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=6288, accessed 19 March 2024.]

6288 Mechanical equivalent of heat found by James Joule 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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