[Letter to Editors]

Abstract

IF Prof. Allen can establish beyond doubt that Joule pronounced his name jool, not jowl, he will do lexicographers a valuable service. The pronunciation jowl, given in “Chambers's Technical Dictionary”, was based on information obtained for our much older “Biographical Dictionary”, so there is no question of its being a recent corruption. While giving the pronunciation jowl for the personal name in our “Technical Dictionary”, we were careful to give the form jool for the unit, since inquiry among physicists showed that it is now universally pronounced so. Accordingly the “contradictory statements” appearing in Prof. Allen's extract from our definition are in reality a measure of our compilers' zeal. It is true that a literal error has crept into the definition, which we regret ; but we stoutly disclaim the error of a century in Joule's birth date.