The new location of Joule is going to get this city's headline writers all in a tizzy: "New Joule Crackles with Electricity"; "Joule's Kinetic Conversion"; "Atoms at New Joule Literally Vibrate"; "Joule Something Calories Something." It will sorely tempt those inclined to begin articles with definitions (Merriam-Webster's, "joule: a unit of work or energy equal to the work done by a force of one newton acting through a distance of one meter"; Wikipedia, "One joule in everyday life is approximately: the energy required to lift a small apple one meter straight up... the energy released when that same apple falls one meter to the ground").
The old-timey English beardo that the unit of measurement is named after, James Prescott Joule, came from a family that owned a brewery. According to Wikipedia, he and his brother "experimented" with electricity by shocking each other (but we all did that—right?) and the servants (oh, the good old days). On his honeymoon, "Marital enthusiasm notwithstanding," Wikipedia reports in a waggish mode, he conducted "an experiment... to measure the temperature difference between the top and bottom of the Cascade de Sallanches waterfall." The romance!
Joule would approve of the wallpaper at the new Joule...
- Kelly O
