SCIENTIFIC MEMOIRS. 



NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 



Article I. 



On the Mechanical Equivalent of an Electric Discharge, and the 

 Heating of the Conducting Wire which accompanies it. By 

 R. Clausius. 



[From Poggendorff's Annalen, No. 7, 1852.] 



oY the application of heat we are able to obtain mechanical 

 work, and it is known that electric currents are also capable of 

 producing various mechanical effects, and also of producing 

 heat. All those phaenomena possess in themselves great inter- 

 est, and this interest is considerably increased by the practical 

 applications which have been made of these forces, and which 

 may possibly yet be made of them. To this is added the cir- 

 cumstance that these actions are capable of strict mathematical 

 treatment, and are therefore peculiarly suited to the investiga- 

 tion of the relation which subsists between them and their 

 causes, and also of the varied influences which they exert upon 

 each other. 



They have indeed already been made the subject of various 

 investigations. Particular attention has been heretofore devoted 

 to galvanic electricity and to electro-magnetism, inasmuch as 



SCIEN. MEM.— AW. Phil. Vol. I. Part I. B 



