CHAPTER X. 



LATER Life.— Joule in 1869. — Estimation in the Society — 

 Sociability — Copley Medal — Institute of France. — Nume- 

 rous Communications. — Display of Character. — Alleged^ 

 Effect of Frost. — Performance of Electro -Magnetic 

 Engines. — President of British Association. — First Fail- 

 ure of Health. — Verification of Final Determination of 

 Mechanical Equivalent of Heat. — Change of Residence ; 

 12, Wardle Road, Sale. — Royal Pension. — Honours. — 

 Collected Scientific Papers by the Physical Society of 

 London. — Declines to be President of British Association,, 

 i88j. — Failing Health. — Death. — Memorial Statue in 

 Manchester. — Memorial Tablet in Westminster Abbey. — 

 International Memorial. — Portraits of Joule. 



It was at a meeting of the Society in 1869 that the 

 author first saw Dr. Joule, who was then in the chair. 

 Although having of necessity become imbued with the 

 transcendent importance of Joule's work in physical Philo- 

 sophy, and the appreciation in which this was held, and 

 regarding him much in the same light as we regard Galileo- 

 or Newton, as a being of another order, the impression on 

 first sight contained no suggestion of disappointment. 

 That Joule, who was then 51 years of age, was rather under 

 the medium height ; that he was somewhat stout and rounded 

 in figure ; that his dress, though neat, was commonplace in 

 the extreme, and that his attitude and movements were 

 possessed of no natural grace, while his manner was some- 



