The family brewery did employ a steam engine, and Joule knew how much his business spent on coal. So, with an eye to the bottom line mixed in with a good measure of scientific curiosity, he wondered if a recent invention, the battery-powered electric motor, could drive the brewery’s pumps and stirrers more cheaply than burning coal. Electric motors had been invented in the early 1830s, and within a few years they had become a craze. “Electrical Euphoria” swept the Western world.
