The organizers told Joule, who was due to speak to a group of chemists, that they were now too busy for his lecture. So, instead, they asked him to speak to some physicists, who had time available. The organizers made it clear to Joule that he should make his talk as brief as possible. For Joule and for science, however, this organizational snafu was serendipitous. Finally, after a decade of scientific obscurity, chance had placed someone in the audience who seemed interested in Joule’s work.
