Sign in or 
- EasyEdit
- Edit tags
-
(what's this?What are these tools?
People just like you can add or edit the content on this site. If you want to try editing, but aren't ready to add to this site, try our demo area.
Read more about editing pages at Wetpaint Central.
) - Report page
Share this
James Thomson
In the history of thermodynamics, James Thomson (1822-1892) was a Scottish engineer, older brother to thermodynamics founder William Thomson, who in about 1843 began to establish a dialog with his brother on application of the heat engine theories of French engineer Sadi Carnot in his 1824 Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire, as presented in the 1834 paper "Memoir on the Motive Power of Heat” by French physicist Émile Clapeyron, to the application in the area of steamship improvement, particularly power going to waste. The adjacent photo is James at the age of sixteen. [1] Beginnings of thermodynamics
The core strand of influence in the early development of thermodynamics, traces from Carnot to Clapeyron to the Thomson brother's discussions on Clapeyron's paper, to German physicist Rudolf Clausius, who found out about Carnot's theory through William's 1848-49 papers on the subject. [2] James may have picked up on the work of Clapeyron through association with his Glasgow College professor Lewis Gordon, beginning in 1841, although it seems that William was the first to acquire a copy of Clapeyron's book. [3] In their early years, both James and William had studied the writings of Scottish physicist David Forbes, a later influence to Scottish engineer William Rankine, another founder of thermodynamics.
In a letter to William in August, 1844, James inquired who it was that had proved there was a definite quantity of mechanical effect (work) given out during the passage of heat from one body to another. He stated his intentions of writing an article for the Artisan about the theoretical possibility of working steam engines without fuel by using over again the heat which was thrown out in the hot water from the condenser, noting that:
“I shall have to enter on the subject of the paper you mentioned to me”.
This paper, according to historian British energy historian Crosbie Smith, was almost certainly the 1837 translation for Taylor’s Scientific Memoirs of Clapeyron’s “Memoirs on the Motive Power of Heat”. [3] The discussions in James letter of 1844, according to Smith, are the earliest record of implicit references to Clapeyron and Carnot by the Thomsons.
References
1. (a) From a pencil drawing by his sister Elizabeth in 1838, National Portrait Gallery, London.
(b) Smith, Crosbie and Wise, Norton M. (1989). Energy and Empire, (pg. 52). Cambridge University Press.
2. (a) Thomson, William. (1848). “On an Absolute Thermometric Scale Founded on Carnot’s Theory of the Motive Power of Heat” (pgs. 100-06), Cambridge Philosophical Society Proceedings for June 5; and Phil. Mag., Oct. 1848.
(b) Thomson, William. (1849). “An Account of Carnot’s Theory of the Motive Power of Heat – with Numerical Results Deduced from Regnault’s Experiments on Steam”, (127-203) Transactions of the Edinburgh Royal Society, xiv.; Annales de Chime, xxxv. 1852.
3. Smith, Crosbie and Wise, Norton M. (1989). Energy and Empire, (pg. 289). Cambridge University Press.
Further reading
● Thomson, James. (1912). in J. Thomson and J. Larmor (eds): Collected Papers in Physics and Engineering.
Sadi-Carnot |
Latest page update: made by Sadi-Carnot
, Apr 13 2009, 2:32 PM EDT
(about this update
About This Update
Edited by Sadi-Carnot
19 words added 19 words deleted view changes - complete history) |
|
More Info: links to this page
|
There are no threads for this page.
Be the first to start a new thread.
