THE WORK OF SADI CARNOT. 11 



proofs of his clearness of view and of the wonder- 

 ful powers of mind possessed by him. He opens 

 his treatise by asserting that " C'est a la chaleur 

 que doivent etre attribute les grands mouvements 

 qui frappent nos regards sur la terre; c'est a elle 

 que sont dues les agitations de V atmosphere, Vas- 

 cension des nuages, la chute des pluies et ties autres 

 meteores, les courants d'eau qui sillonnent la surface 

 du globe et dont Vhomme est parvenue a employer 

 pour son usage une faible partie; en fin les tremble- 

 menfs de terre, les eruptions volcaniques reconnais- 

 sent aussi pour cause la chaleur" 



Carnot was the first to declare that the maximum 

 of work done by heat, in any given case of appli- 

 cation of the heat-energy, is determined solely by 

 the range of temperature through which it fell in 

 the operation, and is entirely independent of the 

 nature of the working substance chosen as the 

 medium of transfer of energy and the vehicle of 

 the heat. His assumption of the materiality of 

 heat led, logically, to the conclusion that the 

 same quantity of heat was finally stored in the 

 refrigerator as had, initially, left the furnace, and 

 that the effect produced was a consequence of a fall 

 of temperature analogous to a fall of water; but, 

 aside from this error which he himself was evi- 



