On the Mechanical Equivalent of Heat

by James Prescott Joule

$2,900 · Offered by Manhattan Rare Books

Over the years, Joule measured the conversion of work into heat by a variety of means; by electrical heating, by compression of gases, by forcing liquids through fine tubes, and by the rotation of paddle wheels through water and mercury. This meticulous work culminated in his monumental paper, On the Mechanical Equivalent of Heat, being read before the Royal Society of London in 1849. One of his conclusions, in this masterpiece, is 'that 772 foot pounds of work would produce the heat

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