In thermodynamics, Samuel Burbury (1831-1911) was an English lawyer and mathematician noted for his 1894 introduction of the now-famous term ‘H theorem’, which he used as the English translate of Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann’s 1872 term ‘minimum theorem’, referring to Boltzmann’s kinetic or Newtonian mechanics definition of entropy.
H-theorem
American physicist David Lindley claims that, some years after Boltzmann’s 1872 'minimum theorem', as Boltzmann called it, “an English physicist apparently misread a German script upper-case E on one of Boltzmann’s papers for an H”. [1] Most sources, however, calm that Burbury began using ‘H’ in 1894 to mean ‘heat’, as in Boltzmann’s heat theorem. [2] This coinage, however, may have been earlier, as, according to his associate Henry Watson, Burbury had published his first work on Boltzmann’s kinetic theory of the second law in the January 1875 issue of the Philosophical Magazine. [3]
Education
Burbury completed his BA in mathematics and classics in 1854 and MA in 1857, both at St. Johns College, Cambridge. He completed his law degree at Lincoln’s Inn, passing the bar in 1855. Thereafter, until 1908, began practicing law, but in his spare time engaged in advanced applied mathematics in kinetic theory, electromagnetism, and thermodynamics, chiefly in collaboration with his college friend Henry Watson. [4]
References
1. Lindley, David. (2001). Boltzmann’s Atom: the Great Debate that Launched a Revolution in Physics (H, pg. 75, Burbury, pgs. 109-22). Free Press.
2. (a) Brown, Harvey R., Myrvold, Wayne, and Uffink, Jos. (2009). “Boltzmann’s H-theorem: its Discontents, and the Birth of Statistical Mechanics”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 40: 174-91.
(b) Klimontovich, Yu. L. (1995). Statistical Theory of Open Systems (pg. 25). Springer.
3. Watson, Henry W. (1876). A Treatise on the Kinetic Theory of Gases (preface, pg. vi). Oxford University Press, 1893, 2nd ed.
4. D.J.O. (1912). “Burbury, Samuel Hawksley”, Dictionary of National Biography, pgs. 258-59. Smith Elder & Co.
Further reading
● Burbury, S. H. (1876). “On the Second Law of Thermodynamics, in Connection with the Kinetic Theory of Gasses”, Philosophical Magazine, 1: 61-67.
● Burbury, S. H. (1882). “On a Theorem in the Dissipation of Energy”, Philosophical Magazine.
● Burbury, S. H. (1894). “Boltzmann’s Minimum Function”. Nature, 51(1308), 78.
● Burbury, S. H. (1895a). “Boltzmann’s Minimum Function”. Nature, 51(1318), 320.
● Burbury, S. H. (1895b). “Boltzmann’s Minimum Function”. Nature, 52(1335), 104–105.
● Burbury, S. H. (1899). A Treatise on the Kinetic Theory of Gases (H theorem, pgs. v-vii, 10, 30, 39-45, etc.). Cambridge University Press.
● Bryan, G.H. (1913). “Samuel Hawksley Burbury: 1831–1911”. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series A, 88(606), i–iv (The obituary notice was attributed to ‘‘G.H.B.’’.).
External links
● Samuel Hawksley Burbury – Wikipedia.
● Burbury, Samuel Hawksley (1831-1911) (lawyer and mathematician) – Collected Works, St. John’s Library.
