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2. On a Universal Tendency in Nature to the Dissipation of Mechanical Energy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2015

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Extract

The object of the present communication is to call attention to the remarkable consequences which follow from Carnot's proposition, established as it is on a new foundation, in the dynamical theory of heat; that there is an absolute waste of mechanical energy available to man, when heat is allowed to pass from one body to another at a lower temperature, by any means not fulfilling his criterion of a “perfect thermo-dynamic engine.” As it is most certain that Creative Power alone can either call into existence or annihilate mechanical energy, the “waste” referred to cannot be annihilation, but must be some transformation of energy. To explain the nature of this transformation, it is convenient, in the first place, to divide stores of mechanical energy into two classes—statical and dynamical.

Type
Proceedings 1851-52
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1857

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References

page 139 note * See the Author's previous paper on the Dynamical Theory of Heat, § 22.

page 140 note * According to “Mayer's hypothesis,” this system coincides with that in which equal differences of temperature are defined as those with which the same mass of air under constant pressure has equal differences of volume, provided J be the mechanical equivalent of the thermal unit and the coefficient of expansion of air.–See the author's previous paper “On the Heat produced by the Compression of a Gas,” &c, § 5.