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Article: Tracing the Second Law: modern thermodynamics owes a debt to the contributions of a line of researchers extending back more than a century.
- Article from:
- Mechanical Engineering-CIME
- Article date:
- July 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 American Society of Mechanical Engineers. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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While man learned to control and use fire many thousands of years ago, only in the last 300 years has the nature of heat been given serious consideration. In this short time, it has been explained as phlogiston, a mysterious fluid created by fire, and as caloric, a material fluid flowing from hot to cold. The modern view, that heat is a convertible form of energy, is fewer than 200 years old.
In the 19th century, James Joule, an English physicist, experimented with converting mechanical energy into thermal effect. He discovered the equivalence of heat and work, and the First Law of Thermodynamics was firmly established. His tombstone is inscribed with a number, ...