ON THE PHYSICAL VIEW OF NATURE. 



133 



the theory of dissipation of energy." ^ Whilst Clausiius in 

 Germany and Thomson in England were busy reconciling 

 the truths contained in Carnot's older researches with the 

 new conceptions firmly established by Joule's cla.ssical 

 measurements, putting both into mathematical and into 

 popular language, correcting our mathematical fornmlie as 

 well as our vocabulary, other applications of the new 

 ideas assisted in procuring for them general recognition Ranw^ine. 

 and acceptance. Ifankine- in England, Zeuner^ in Cler- uirn*''*" 



26. 



^ Lord Kelvin, in a paper read 

 before the Royal Society of Edin- 

 burgh, 2i)d February 1874, on "The 

 Kinetic Theory of the I)is.si])ation 

 of Energj' "" (' Proceedings,' vol. viii. 

 p. 32.") ii'i'i. ) See ahso hi.s article in 

 the ' Fortnightly Review' for Mai'ch 

 1892, reprinted in ' Popular Lec- 

 tures and Addresses,' vol. ii. p. 

 449 .S77. 



- The earliest formal treatise on 

 thermo - dynaniics wa.s Macquorn 

 Rankine's article on " The Mechani- 

 cal Action of Heat" in Nichol'.s 

 'Cyclopaedia' for the year 18.')5. 

 The part he took in the develop- 

 ment of the new science was prac- 

 tical and at the same time highly 

 speculative. His papers on tem- 

 perature and elasticity of steam 

 and other vapours, on the expan- 

 sion of liquids by heat, and on 

 the mechanical action of heat, of 

 dates 1849 and 1850 (see ' Miscellan- 

 eous Scientific Papers,' ed. Millar, 

 1881, pp. 1, 16, 234), entitle him 

 to be considered as one of the 

 first — if not the first (see his claim 

 to priority in a letter in Poggen- 

 dorf's 'Annalen,' p. 81, IS.'JO)— to 

 reconcile Carnot's di.scovery with 

 the mechanical view. His investi- 

 gations were peculiar, combining 

 practical ai)[)lication8 of great value 

 and important predictions (see 

 Tait's memoir prefaced to Ran- 

 kine's ' Papers,' p. xxi.x) with daring 



speculation ; his deduction.s Inking 

 founded on iiis theory of molecular 

 vortices. Tiiough he exerted in 

 this country a great influence on 

 the early workers in thermo-dyn- 

 amics, his theories were scarcely 

 relished in (Jermany (see Helm- 

 holtz's criticism of Rankine's 

 methods in 1853, quoted by Helm, 

 ' Energetik,' p. 114), where Claus- 

 ius's independent and simultaneous 

 researches on the same subject had 

 meanwjiile usurped attention. But 

 Rankine's ' Manual of Applied 

 Mechanics' (1857), his 'Manual of 

 the Steam-engine and other Prime 

 Motors' (18.')9), were the first books 

 of practical application in which, 

 through a happy nomenclature 

 and an extensive use of gra])iiical 

 methods (Watt's indicator diagram 

 and Carnot's cycle), the new ideas 

 were introduced to a wider circle. 

 See Helm's estimate of Rankine's 

 work in 'Energetik,' p. 116 .•(77. 



•* Somewhat later than Rankine 

 in this country, Zeuner in Switzer- 

 land and Germany, following upon 

 Clausius's theoretical memoirs, in- 

 troduced the mechanical treatment 

 of practical heat - problems. His 

 ' r.rund/.iige dcr mechanischen 

 Warmetheorie ' (1860) was to many 

 a revelation. Aj)peuring about the 

 time when the German meciianical 

 and chemical industries were start- 

 ing upon a new development. 



