Abstract
We present a history of thermodynamics. Part 1 discusses definitions, a pre-history of heat and temperature, and steam engine efficiency, which motivated thermodynamics. Part 2 considers in detail three heat conservation-based foundational papers by Carnot, Clapeyron, and Thomson. For a reversible Carnot cycle operating between thermal reservoirs with Celsius temperatures t and , heat Q from the hot reservoir, and net work W, Clapeyron derived , with material-independent. Thomson used to define an absolute temperature but, unaware that an additional criterion was needed, he first proposed a logarithmic function of the ideal gas temperature . Part 3, following a discussion of conservation of energy, considers in detail a number of energy conservation-based papers by Clausius and Thomson. As noted by Gibbs, in 1850, Clausius established the first modern form of thermodynamics, followed by Thomson’s 1851 rephrasing of what he called the Second Law. In 1854, Clausius theoretically established for a simple Carnot cycle the condition . He generalized it to , and then . This both implied a new thermodynamic state function and, with appropriate integration factor , the thermodynamic temperature. In 1865, Clausius named this new state function the entropy S.
Highlights
An article on the history of thermodynamics can do no worse than begin by citing the first usage of any version of the word thermodynamics
This work traces the origins of thermodynamics, with an emphasis on the logical order of the concepts
We note that the material-independent efficiency of a reversible heat engine defines only a well-ordered set of numbers corresponding to temperature, consistent with Thomson’s proposal of two distinct material-independent temperature scales, the second being the ideal gas scale in Kelvin units
Summary
An article on the history of thermodynamics can do no worse than begin by citing the first usage of any version of the word thermodynamics. In 1854, Clausius brought thermodynamics to a more mature form by establishing the uniqueness of a quantity equivalent to what in 1865 he called the entropy S That is, he showed that, on using the ideal gas temperature scale Tg and measuring the heat flow dQ into the system, for any closed. 0 for all paths in p-v space, one can determine which of two or more temperature scales is “better” [18] This resolution led me to study how Clausius’s entropy became established in the lore of physics, and the meaningful study of Clausius led to the study of his predecessors, and the present work
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