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Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire

 

 
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Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire
 
 
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In the history of thermodynamics
History of thermodynamics

The history of thermodynamics is a fundamental strand in the history of physics, the history of chemistry, and the history of science in general....
, Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire and on Machines Fitted to Develop that Power (French title: Réflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu et sur les machines propres à développer cette puissance) is an 1824, 65-page book by French
French people

French people can refer to:* The legal residents and citizens of France, regardless of ancestry. For a legal discussion, see French nationality law....
 physicist
Physicist

A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many Physics#Major fields of physics spanning all length scales: from atom particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole ....
 Sadi Carnot
Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot

Nicolas L?onard Sadi Carnot was a France physicist and military engineer who, in his 1824 Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire, gave the first successful theoretical account of heat engines, now known as the Carnot cycle, thereby laying the foundations of the second law of thermodynamics....
 on a generalized theory of heat engine
Heat engine

A heat engine is a physical or theoretical device that converts thermal energy to mechanical output. The mechanical output is called Mechanical work, and the thermal energy input is called heat....
s and is considered the founding work in the science of thermodynamics
Thermodynamics

In physics, thermodynamics is the study of the conversion of heat energy into different forms of energy ; different energy conversions into heat energy; and its relation to macroscopic variables such as temperature, pressure, and volume....
. In it is found the preliminary outline of the second law of thermodynamics
Second law of thermodynamics

The second law of thermodynamics is an expression of the universal law of increasing entropy, stating that the entropy of an isolated system which is not in Thermodynamic equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium....
, namely that motive power
Motive power

In thermodynamics, motive power is an agency, as water or steam, used to impart Motion . Generally, motive power is defined as a natural agent, as water, steam, wind, electricity, etc., used to impart motion to machinery; a motor; a mover....
 is due to the fall of caloric (heat
Heat

In physics and thermodynamics, heat is any transfer of energy from one body or thermodynamic system to another due to a difference in temperature....
) from a hot to cold body.






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In the history of thermodynamics
History of thermodynamics

The history of thermodynamics is a fundamental strand in the history of physics, the history of chemistry, and the history of science in general....
, Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire and on Machines Fitted to Develop that Power (French title: Réflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu et sur les machines propres à développer cette puissance) is an 1824, 65-page book by French
French people

French people can refer to:* The legal residents and citizens of France, regardless of ancestry. For a legal discussion, see French nationality law....
 physicist
Physicist

A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many Physics#Major fields of physics spanning all length scales: from atom particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole ....
 Sadi Carnot
Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot

Nicolas L?onard Sadi Carnot was a France physicist and military engineer who, in his 1824 Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire, gave the first successful theoretical account of heat engines, now known as the Carnot cycle, thereby laying the foundations of the second law of thermodynamics....
 on a generalized theory of heat engine
Heat engine

A heat engine is a physical or theoretical device that converts thermal energy to mechanical output. The mechanical output is called Mechanical work, and the thermal energy input is called heat....
s and is considered the founding work in the science of thermodynamics
Thermodynamics

In physics, thermodynamics is the study of the conversion of heat energy into different forms of energy ; different energy conversions into heat energy; and its relation to macroscopic variables such as temperature, pressure, and volume....
. In it is found the preliminary outline of the second law of thermodynamics
Second law of thermodynamics

The second law of thermodynamics is an expression of the universal law of increasing entropy, stating that the entropy of an isolated system which is not in Thermodynamic equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium....
, namely that motive power
Motive power

In thermodynamics, motive power is an agency, as water or steam, used to impart Motion . Generally, motive power is defined as a natural agent, as water, steam, wind, electricity, etc., used to impart motion to machinery; a motor; a mover....
 is due to the fall of caloric (heat
Heat

In physics and thermodynamics, heat is any transfer of energy from one body or thermodynamic system to another due to a difference in temperature....
) from a hot to cold body. The paper sat unnoticed until 1834 when French mining engineer Emile Clapeyron put it on a graphical footing in his "Memoir on the Motive Power of Heat". Through Clapeyron's paper, German physicist Rudolf Clausius
Rudolf Clausius

Rudolf Julius Emanuel Clausius , was a Germany physicist and mathematician and is considered one of the central founders of the science of thermodynamics....
 learned of Carnot's theory of heat
Theory of heat

In the history of science, the theory of heat or mechanical theory of heat was a theory, introduced predominantly in 1824 by the French physicist Nicolas L?onard Sadi Carnot, that heat and mechanical work are equivalent....
 and through a modification of Carnot's suppositions on heat, Clausius put the second law in mathematical form with his introduction of the concept of entropy
Entropy

In many branches of science, entropy is a measure of the disorder of a system. The concept of entropy is particularly notable as it is applied across physics, information theory and mathematics....
. By 1849, "thermo-dynamics", as a functional term, was used in William Thomson
William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin

William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin , Order of Merit , Royal Victorian Order, Privy Council of the United Kingdom, Presidents of the Royal Society, Royal Society of Edinburgh, was an Ireland-born United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Mathematical physics and engineer....
's paper An Account of Carnot's Theory of the Motive Power of Heat.

The Reflections contain a number of principles such as the Carnot cycle
Carnot cycle

The Carnot cycle is a particular thermodynamic cycle, modeled on the hypothetical Carnot heat engine, proposed by Nicolas L?onard Sadi Carnot in 1824 and expanded upon by ?mile Clapeyron in the 1830s and 40s....
, the Carnot heat engine
Carnot heat engine

File:Carnot-engine-1824.pngA Carnot heat engine is a hypothetical engine that operates on the reversible Carnot cycle. The basic model for this engine was developed by Nicolas L?onard Sadi Carnot in 1824....
, Carnot theorem, thermodynamic efficiency, to name a few. Similar to how the Reflections was the precursor to the second law, English physicist James Joule's 1843 paper Mechanical equivalent of heat
Mechanical equivalent of heat

In the history of science, the mechanical equivalent of heat was a concept that had an important part in the development and acceptance of the conservation of energy and the establishment of the science of thermodynamics in the 19th century....
 was the precursor to the first law of thermodynamics
First law of thermodynamics

In thermodynamics, the first law of thermodynamics is an expression of the more universal physical law of the conservation of energy. Succinctly, the first law of thermodynamics states:...
.