MOTIVE POWER OF HEAT. 55 



nite number of alternative operations of this sort 

 could be carried on without in the end having 

 either produced motive power or transferred caloric 

 from one body to the other. 



Now if there existed any means of using heat 

 preferable to those which we have employed, that 

 is, if it were possible by any method whatever to 

 make the caloric produce a quantity of motive 

 power greater than we have made it produce by our 

 first series of operations, it would suffice to divert 

 a portion of this power in order by the method just 

 indicated to make the caloric of the body B return 

 to the body A from the refrigerator to the furnace, 

 to restore the initial conditions, and thus to be 

 ready to commence again an operation precisely 

 similar to the former, and so on : this would be 

 not only perpetual motion, but an unlimited crea- 

 tion of motive power without consumption either 

 of caloric or of any other agent whatever. Such 

 a creation is entirely contrary to ideas now accepted, 

 to the laws of mechanics and of sound physics. 

 It is inadmissible.* We should then conclude that 

 the maximum of motive power resulting from the 

 employment of steam is also the maximum of motive 

 power realizable by any means whatever. We will 



* Note A, Appendix B. 



