"If the water flow down by a gradual natural channel, its potential energy is gradually converted into heat by fluid friction, according to an admirable discovery made by Mr Joule of Manchester above twelve years ago, which has led to the greatest reform that physical science has experienced since the days of Newton. From that discovery, it may be concluded with certainty that heat is not matter, but some kind of motion among the particles of matter; a conclusion established, it is true, by Sir Humphrey Davy and Count Rumford at the end of last century, but ignored by even the highest scientific men during a period of more than forty years."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
William Thomson, Mathematical and Physical Papers, Vol.2 (1884) "On Mechanical Antecedents of Motion, Heat and Light" (original publications 1854, 1855)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Prescott_Joule
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
James Prescott Joule
James Prescott Joule (24 December 1818 – 11 October 1889) was an English physicist and brewer. Joule studied the nature of heat, and discovered its relationship to mechanical work.
4 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by James Prescott Joule →
Related Quotes
"My object has been, first to discover correct principles and then to suggest their practical development."
"It was in the year 1843 that I read a paper "On the Calorific Effects of Magneto-Electricity and the Mechanical Value…"
"Mr Joule... fully established the relations of equivalence among the energies of chemical affinity, of heat, of combi…"
"Miles of cornfields, and ballet in the evening."
"During my undergraduate course in physics at the University of Edinburgh, we were getting a bit bogged down in it, an…"
"My research has been funded by taxpayers throughout my whole life, so I have always been a keen science communicator.…"
"This really came about because the man who hired me for my first post-doc position was a chemical engineering profess…"
"First and foremost, you have to be in it for the long haul. There are no quick fixes. There are plenty of setbacks. T…"
"Science, the Art of Understanding Nature"
"The successful launching of the Sputnik was a demonstration of one of the highest scientific and technological achiev…"