APPENDIX II 



Extract from Art. LIX. of Vol. i. of Lord Kelvin's 

 " MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL PAPERS," on a 

 Universal Tendency in Nature to the Dissipation 

 of Mechanical Energy. K 



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. As it is most certain that 

 Creative Power alone can either call into existence 

 or annihilate mechanical energy, the "waste" re- 

 ferred to cannot be annihilation , but must be some 

 transformation of energy. To explain the nature of 

 this transformation, it is convenient, in the first 



65 From the Proceedings of the Eoyal Society of 

 Edinburgh, April 19th, 1852; also Philosophical Magazine, 

 October, 1852. 



291 



