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Mechanical Theory of Heat
In famous publications, The Mechanical Theory of Heat – with its Applications to the Steam Engine and to Physical Properties of Bodies is a 376-page 1867 book written by German physicist Rudolf Clausius, that is the founding publication and linchpin of the entire edifice of the science of thermodynamics. [1] The book, a collection of nine memoirs (papers) of Clausius, is the result of a prolonged investigative correction of French physicist Sadi Carnot's 1824 paper "On the Motive Power of Fire", in which Clausius modified Carnot's caloric theory based postulates on the nature of the relationship between heat and work, in particular the assumption that no change occurs in the working body during one heat cycle, with the recent experimental discoveries contained in the theory of heat and mechanical equivalent of heat, to result in the modern mathematical formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics.
Sections
The following sections, consisting of a collection of papers published between 1850 and 1865, principally in Poggendorff’s Annalen, consitute the structure of The Mechanical Theory of Heat:
- Mathematical Introduction (1858): On the Treatment of Differential Equations which are not Directly Integrable, pp. 1-13.
- First Memoir (1850): On the Moving Force of Heat and the Laws of Heat Which May be Deduced Therefrom, pp. 14-69
- Second Memoir (1851): On the Deportment of Vapour During its Expansion Under Different Circumstances, pp. 90-100
- Third Memoir (1851): On the Theoretic Connexion of Two Empirical Laws Relating to the Tensions and the Latent Heat of Different Vapours, pp. 104-110
- Fourth Memoir (1854): On a Modified Form of the Second Fundamental Theorem in the Mechanical Theory of Heat, pp. 111-135
- Fifth Memoir (1856): On the Application of the Mechanical theory of Heat to the Steam-Engine, pp. 136-207
- Sixth Memoir (1862): On the Application of the Theorem of the Equivalence of Transformations to Interior Work, pp. 215-250
- Seventh Memoir (1863): On an Axiom in the Mechanical Theory of Heat, pp. 267-289.
- Eighth Memoir (1863): On the Concentration of Rays of Heat and Light, and on the Limits of its Action, pp. 290-326.
- Ninth Memoir (1865): On Several Convenient Forms of the Fundamental Equations of the Mechanical Theory of Heat, pp. 327-365.
Second edition
After having taught the subject for a number of years, in 1875 Clausius finished rewriting the book so as to take it from a collection of papers to a "text-book of the subject". It was published in 1876 and later as an English translation edition in 1879. [2] In the preface to the second edition, he states that his long experience as a lecturer on the subject at the Polytechnic School and at several universities over the last ten years, since the publication of the first edition, has taught him how the subject matter should be arranged to make this “somewhat difficult theory” more readily intelligible.
References
1. Clausius, R. (1865). The Mechanical Theory of Heat – with its Applications to the Steam Engine and to Physical Properties of Bodies. (Google Books). London: John van Voorst, 1 Paternoster Row. MDCCCLXVII.
2. Clausius, Rudolf. (1879). The Mechanical Theory of Heat, (2nd ed). London: Macmillan & Co.
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