23
practical outcome of a deeper understanding of fundamental physical and chemical
laws governing energetic systems and the sharing of these discoveries were ever
higher work yields through new engines of industry.
Less than a century after Isaac Newton’s Principia (1687) laid the mathematical
capstone for modern science,
5
(Motte, trans. 2018) British industrialists began
applying both abstract and empirically tested scientific principles, especially in the
emerging field of thermodynamics, to maximize work output.
Between 1763 and 1775, James Watt made continuous improvements to Thomas
Newcomen’s 1712 steam engine. His 1769 patent, for a New Method of Lessening
the Consumption of Steam and Fuel in Fire Engines, marked a more than doubling
in power output (Smil 2008). Eighteenth-century English mining, iron production,
and textile manufacture were the first industrial processes supercharged by these
new engines. With relatively portable and continuous steam energy sources, industry could establish itself far away from high-power mill wheels driven by large,
fast-running rivers and waterfalls. The First Industrial Revolution that was set in
motion by new knowledge and invention replaced human- and animal-powered
work, renewable biomass, and renewable energy-sourced (wind and water) power
plants with fuel sources containing higher specific energy. Ever-expanding industrial production from that point until today was and is primarily powered by fossil
fuels. Moreover, what is produced has changed to include goods and services that,
in the aggregate, require enormous amounts of fossil energy to function.
2.5 Sadi Carnot’s Caloric Thermal Energy
The familiar calorie unit measures the energy content in foods. The word itself
comes from “calor” the Latin word for “heat”; it directly names energy as heat.
Today’s nutritional unit is the kilocalorie also referred to as the large calorie and is
equal to 1000 small calories. 1 small calorie is the amount of heat energy needed to
raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree centigrade.
In Sadi Carnot’s self-published book, Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat
and on Machines 1824, he described an ideal heat engine capable of converting
100% of heat within a system into mechanical motion that he called “motive power.”
From studying the way existing steam engines worked,
6
Carnot (1897) extrapolated
a theoretical maximum efficiency where no loss of motive power was possible under
the right conditions. He relied on Antoine Lavoisier’s widely held but erroneous
notion of a ubiquitous invisible fluid called “caloric” that flows in only one direction
from hotter to colder bodies. According to Carnot, this fluid can more efficiently
5 Prior to this landmark work, Gottfried Leibniz published his paper, “A New Method for Maxima
and Minima” in 1684 and is credited for developing calculus in parallel with Newton.
6 Carnot acknowledges the practical and incremental contributions that produced ever more efficient engines by Thomas Newcomen, James Watt, and other English engineers in the opening
pages of his seminal work.
2.5 Sadi Carnot’s Caloric Thermal Energy
practical outcome of a deeper understanding of fundamental physical and chemical
laws governing energetic systems and the sharing of these discoveries were ever
higher work yields through new engines of industry.
Less than a century after Isaac Newton’s Principia (1687) laid the mathematical
capstone for modern science,
5
(Motte, trans. 2018) British industrialists began
applying both abstract and empirically tested scientific principles, especially in the
emerging field of thermodynamics, to maximize work output.
Between 1763 and 1775, James Watt made continuous improvements to Thomas
Newcomen’s 1712 steam engine. His 1769 patent, for a New Method of Lessening
the Consumption of Steam and Fuel in Fire Engines, marked a more than doubling
in power output (Smil 2008). Eighteenth-century English mining, iron production,
and textile manufacture were the first industrial processes supercharged by these
new engines. With relatively portable and continuous steam energy sources, industry could establish itself far away from high-power mill wheels driven by large,
fast-running rivers and waterfalls. The First Industrial Revolution that was set in
motion by new knowledge and invention replaced human- and animal-powered
work, renewable biomass, and renewable energy-sourced (wind and water) power
plants with fuel sources containing higher specific energy. Ever-expanding industrial production from that point until today was and is primarily powered by fossil
fuels. Moreover, what is produced has changed to include goods and services that,
in the aggregate, require enormous amounts of fossil energy to function.
2.5 Sadi Carnot’s Caloric Thermal Energy
The familiar calorie unit measures the energy content in foods. The word itself
comes from “calor” the Latin word for “heat”; it directly names energy as heat.
Today’s nutritional unit is the kilocalorie also referred to as the large calorie and is
equal to 1000 small calories. 1 small calorie is the amount of heat energy needed to
raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree centigrade.
In Sadi Carnot’s self-published book, Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat
and on Machines 1824, he described an ideal heat engine capable of converting
100% of heat within a system into mechanical motion that he called “motive power.”
From studying the way existing steam engines worked,
6
Carnot (1897) extrapolated
a theoretical maximum efficiency where no loss of motive power was possible under
the right conditions. He relied on Antoine Lavoisier’s widely held but erroneous
notion of a ubiquitous invisible fluid called “caloric” that flows in only one direction
from hotter to colder bodies. According to Carnot, this fluid can more efficiently
5 Prior to this landmark work, Gottfried Leibniz published his paper, “A New Method for Maxima
and Minima” in 1684 and is credited for developing calculus in parallel with Newton.
6 Carnot acknowledges the practical and incremental contributions that produced ever more efficient engines by Thomas Newcomen, James Watt, and other English engineers in the opening
pages of his seminal work.
2.5 Sadi Carnot’s Caloric Thermal Energy