James Prescot Joules

Full Name-

James Prescott Joule

Born-

24 December 1818

Died-

11 October 1889

• Joule studied the nature of heat, and discovered its relationship to mechanical work (see energy). This led to the law of conservation of energy, which in turn led to the development of the first law of thermodynamics. The SI derived unit of energy, the joule, is named after him.
• Joule worked with Lord Kelvin to develop an absolute thermodynamic temperature scale, which came to be called the Kelvin scale.
• Joule also made observations of magnetostriction, and he found the relationship between the current through a resistor and the heat dissipated, which is also called Joule's first law. His experiments about energy transformations were first published in 1843.

• Known For-

1. First law of thermodynamics
2. Disproving caloric theory

• Awards-

1. Royal Medal (1852)
2. Copley Medal (1870)
3. Albert Medal (1880)