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Nature previously considered separate such as material movement, sound, heat, light, electricity, and magnetism were all measurable in the same units, those of energy, the quantity of which in the universe neither increased nor decreased. The conservation of energy was a mag­nificent extension of Newton's principle of conservation of motion, like it, contained in itself no conception of pro­gressive change. However, the change did indeed follow from the second law, which limited the amount of work that could be got from each ton of coal by an engine of given design. The efficiency of engines at that time sel­dom rose to as much as five per cent.

The principle of the conservation of energy, of which mechanical work, electricity, and heat were only different forms, was the greatest physical discovery of the middle of the nineteenth century. It brought many sciences to­gether. Energy became the universal gold standard of changes in the universe. A fixed rate of exchange be­tween different forms of energy was established - between the calories of heat, the foot-pounds of work, and the kilowatt-hours of electricity. The whole of human ac­tivity - industry, transport, lighting, ultimately food and life itself - was seen to depend on this one common term: energy.