SIR WILLIAM THOMSON'S ACCOUNT. IOC/ 



friends from thence forward. However, he did not tell me 

 he was to be married in a week or so, but about a fortnight 

 later, I was walking down from Chamounix to commence 

 the tour of Mont Blanc, and whom should I meet walking 

 up but Joule, with a long thermometer in his hand, and a 

 carriage with a lady in it not far off. He told me that he 

 had been married since we parted at Oxford ! and he was 

 going to try for elevation of temperature in waterfalls. We 

 trysted to meet a few days later at Martigny, and look at 

 the Cascade de Sallanches, to see if it might answer. We 

 found it too much broken into spray. His young wife, as 

 long as she lived, took complete interest in his scientific 

 work, and both she and he showed me the greatest kindness 

 during my visits to them in Manchester, for our experiments 

 on the thermal effects of fluid in motion, which we 

 commenced a few years later. 



" Joule's paper at the Oxford meeting made a great 

 sensation. Faraday was there, and was much struck with it,, 

 but did not enter fully into the new views. It was many 

 years after that, before any of the scientific chiefs began to 

 give their adhesion. It was not long after when Stokes told 

 me he was inclined to be a Joulite. 



" Miller or Graham, or both, were for many years quite 

 incredulous as to Joule's results, because they all depended 

 on fractions of a degree of temperature — sometimes very 

 small fractions. His boldness in making such large con- 

 clusions from such very small observational effects, is almost 

 as noteworthy and admirable as his skill in extorting 

 accuracy from them. I remember distinctly at the Royal 

 Society, I think it was either Graham or Miller saying 

 simply he did not believe Joule because he had nothing but 

 hundredths of a degree to prove his case by." 



