James Prescott Joule brought on new technology and ideas that was yet to be seen by the world. Joule was born in Salford, England to a wealthy brewery owner. Joule was the second son the wealthy brewer. Joule had poor health growing up with a spinal injury, with so much time that he can't play sports or exercise he turned to book and experiments. He was a very shy and kept to himself much of the time. His father encouraged him to fulfill his dream and built a laboratory at home so he can do his experiments. In 1833 his father became very ill so he had to work on running the brewery and only on experiments with his very little spare time. .
James Joule was home school till the age of 16 when he was sent to Cambridge to study under a British chemist named John Dalton. Joules main goal was to replace steam engines with electric motors. He experimented to find out about electro magnetic, after 1841 his main interest became heat. .
Also in 1843 he conducted several experiments to determine the mechanical value of heat. He first tried rotating an electromagnet in water between two other poles of a magnet then measuring the overall heat and current in the water, magnets, and coils. He then tried to measure it by forcing water through tubes and measuring the temperature. His first discovery was Q=I2Rt Q=Heat I= current R= rate t= time. This discovery linked many things together such as heat and electricity and other forms of energy. Many people ignored or were in disbelief of Joule's finding and gave it no attention. Months later he presented it before a scientific gathering, his presentation was acknowledged by a man named William Thomson, and he was later called Lord Kelvin. Thomson acknowledgement and comment lead many to have an interest in Joule's experiment. Joule also discovered, in 1846, the phenomenon of magnetostriction, whereby an iron bar changes its length somewhat when magnetized. Full recognition for Joule's work came in 1849 when Joule read a paper on his work before the Royal Society.