LVII. A dynamical treatment of the elements of heat

Abstract

Abstract The elements of the subject of heat are developed from consideration of the dynamical effects produced by heat in a similar manner to that used in the development of electric and magnetic theory. The advantages are that a dynamical scale of temperature independent of the properties of any particular substance follows naturally and clearly, and that the unit of quantity of heat becomes the erg, also independent of the properties of any particular substance. This leads to a foundation of calorimetry directly on the principle of the conservation of energy instead of, as at present, on a usually undisclosed historical background of an indestructible caloric fluid. The relation between heat measured in calorimetry and heat measured in dynamical terms is obtained without recourse to Carnot's cycle and the obscurities associated with perfectly reversible engines. If a practical unit of temperature is taken to be 107 greater than the dynamical unit proposed, the specific heat of water at 15° C. becomes 1·007 joules per gram per degree. Knowledge of a gas constant and a mechanical equivalent of heat is not required in the system proposed.