In his 1852 article [4:511–514], he opened with the statement “The object of the
present communication is to call attention to the remarkable consequences which
follow from Carnot’s proposition, 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,’ established, on a new foundation, in the dynamical theory
of heat [referring back to his 1851 article: Ref. 4:174–200].” After a discussion on
the possibilities of restoration of mechanical energy spent in processes of heat, he
made the same point again as Proposition 3 in the article
When heat is diffused by conduction, there is a dissipation of mechanical energy, and [with
regards to the issue of restoration to the original state] perfect restoration is impossible.
Kelvin saw what unified frictional irreversible processes (Fig. 4.1, 2a) and
dispersal irreversible processes (Fig. 4.1, 1a) was that all these processes were
dissipative, giving a cosmic direction to time. It was dissipation that seemed to
Thomson to lie behind all the disparate unidirectional phenomena (…bulk energy
had been dissipated into increased energy in microscopic motions). The paper
ended with a terse declaration of three “general conclusions” [4:511–514]:
GC-1. “There is at present in the material world a universal tendency to the dissipation of
mechanical energy.”
GC-2. “Any restoration of mechanical energy, without more than an equivalent of dissipa
tion, is impossible in inanimate material processes, and is probably never effected
by means of organized matter, either endowed with vegetable life or subjected to
the will of an animated creature.”
GC-3. “Within a finite period of time past, the earth must have been, and within a finite
period of time to come the earth must again be, unfit for the habitation of man as at
present constituted, unless operations have been, or are to be performed, which are
impossible under the laws to which the known operations going on at present in the
material world are subject.”
These general conclusions taken together amounted to a declaration of a universal principle of dissipation of mechanical energy or high-grade energy. I refer to
them as the energy principle. Note that the energy principle is not the principle of
conservation of energy. The principle of conservation of energy in its original
narrow sense merely acknowledges the possibility of energy transformation subject
to energy constancy during all energy transformations, without any indication of the
preferred direction of transformations.
Now, the energy principle gives preferred direction, in addition to energy constancy, of energy transformations, adding new meaning to Statement #5, Table 3.1.
Before the 1852 paper, heat and mechanical work and their equivalence were the
focus of thermodynamics in the investigation of Carnot, Mayer, Joule, and Clausius
84
4 Carnot’s Theory of Heat, and Kelvin’s Adoption …
present communication is to call attention to the remarkable consequences which
follow from Carnot’s proposition, 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,’ established, on a new foundation, in the dynamical theory
of heat [referring back to his 1851 article: Ref. 4:174–200].” After a discussion on
the possibilities of restoration of mechanical energy spent in processes of heat, he
made the same point again as Proposition 3 in the article
When heat is diffused by conduction, there is a dissipation of mechanical energy, and [with
regards to the issue of restoration to the original state] perfect restoration is impossible.
Kelvin saw what unified frictional irreversible processes (Fig. 4.1, 2a) and
dispersal irreversible processes (Fig. 4.1, 1a) was that all these processes were
dissipative, giving a cosmic direction to time. It was dissipation that seemed to
Thomson to lie behind all the disparate unidirectional phenomena (…bulk energy
had been dissipated into increased energy in microscopic motions). The paper
ended with a terse declaration of three “general conclusions” [4:511–514]:
GC-1. “There is at present in the material world a universal tendency to the dissipation of
mechanical energy.”
GC-2. “Any restoration of mechanical energy, without more than an equivalent of dissipa
tion, is impossible in inanimate material processes, and is probably never effected
by means of organized matter, either endowed with vegetable life or subjected to
the will of an animated creature.”
GC-3. “Within a finite period of time past, the earth must have been, and within a finite
period of time to come the earth must again be, unfit for the habitation of man as at
present constituted, unless operations have been, or are to be performed, which are
impossible under the laws to which the known operations going on at present in the
material world are subject.”
These general conclusions taken together amounted to a declaration of a universal principle of dissipation of mechanical energy or high-grade energy. I refer to
them as the energy principle. Note that the energy principle is not the principle of
conservation of energy. The principle of conservation of energy in its original
narrow sense merely acknowledges the possibility of energy transformation subject
to energy constancy during all energy transformations, without any indication of the
preferred direction of transformations.
Now, the energy principle gives preferred direction, in addition to energy constancy, of energy transformations, adding new meaning to Statement #5, Table 3.1.
Before the 1852 paper, heat and mechanical work and their equivalence were the
focus of thermodynamics in the investigation of Carnot, Mayer, Joule, and Clausius
84
4 Carnot’s Theory of Heat, and Kelvin’s Adoption …