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The heat of the moment

Nature Physics volume 18, page 120 (2022)Cite this article

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To celebrate the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development, James Gallagher tells the story of the British thermal unit, a unit for heat.

His life coincided with a period of immense industrial change in Britain. Mechanization, driven by steam engines, brought speed and efficiency to manufacturing. Industry started to thrive and smoke began to spew from factory chimneys. As workers relocated to the towns and cities, new dwellings, factories and public buildings were constructed — all of which required heating. In the nineteenth century, this meant that some kind of carbon-based fuel, such as coal, wood or peat, had to be burned, but which fuel would be most effective for a given situation wasn’t always clear.

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References

  1. Tredgold, T. Principles of Warming and Ventilating Public Buildings (J. Taylor, 1824).

  2. https://www.iybssd2022.org/en/home/

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  1. Senior Editor at Nature Energy https://www.nature.com/natureenergy

    James Gallagher

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  1. James Gallagher
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Correspondence to James Gallagher.

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Gallagher, J. The heat of the moment. Nat. Phys. 18, 120 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-021-01482-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-021-01482-y

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