Mechanics, thermodynamics and locomotive design: The machine‐ensemble and the development of industrial thermodynamics

Abstract

The need to treat history of technology as history of ideas is stressed and a definition of philosophy by G.C. Lichtenberg is adapted to serve as a tool for analysing technological change. A case study of locomotive design is introduced, and the influence of rational mechanics, on the machine‐ensemble or locomotive‐track union, beginning with the work. of L. Carnot, is briefly outlined. The development of industrial thermodynamics from S. Carnot (1824) to H. Riall Sankey (1898) is summarized to serve as a reference for later papers. The general influence of Mechanical Philosophy, and Thermodynamical Philosophy, on the development of the machine‐ensemble, is traced. It is concluded that the United Kingdom steam‐railway machine‐ensemble was the grand exemplar for technology from 1830 to 1880, after which date American railway practice served as model for railway engineering and business methods, whilst electrotechnology became the exemplary technology. Mechanical Philosophy shaped the machine‐ensemble throu...