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Sadi Carnot and the Steam Engine: Nicolas Clément's lectures on industrial chemistry 1823–28

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Philip Lervig
Philip Lervig
Affiliation:
Institute of Physics, University of Aarhus, DK 8000 Aarhus C., Denmark.
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Extract

Le manuscrit publié ici pour la première fois se compose des notes du cours de Chimie Industrielle professé par Nicolas Clément au Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers à Paris en 1823, prises par le mathématicien L. B. Francoeur. Quelques extraits de ce même cours, datant de 1824–28, rédigés par J. M. Baudot, ont été ajoutés. Plusieurs de ces extraits ont déja été publiés précédemment.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , July 1985 , pp. 147 - 196
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 1985

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References

Since I consider the story to be presented here as being well suited as an introduction to the prehistory of thermodynamics, I have chosen to explain the basic ideas of Carnot's theory in slightly more detail than is customary.

I want to thank Ole Knudsen for many useful discussions, Robert Fox and Keith Hutchison for very valuable criticism and Jacques Chevallier for aid with the transcriptions. I am grateful to M. Bouniol from Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, Paris and Mme. Jacques, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, for allowing me to publish the manuscripts.

1 Throughout this paper, I shall refer to the annotated edition: Sadi, Carnot: Réflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu, édition critique par Fox, Robert (Paris 1978)Google Scholar, where the original pagination appears in [ ]. This edition also contains transcriptions of all the significant Carnot manuscripts that have survived.

2 Carnet, , op. cit. (1), p. [98].Google Scholar

3 Desormes, C. B. and Clément, N.: ‘Mémoire sur la Théorie des machines à feu’ (Extrait) Bull, des Sciences par la Societé Philomatique de Paris, 1819, 6, p. 115–8.Google Scholar A long quotation from the disappeared memoire has survived in Thenard, L. J.: Traité de Chimie théorique et pratique, l, tom, 5. éd.Paris 1827, p. 77–82.Google Scholar

4 Francoeur's notes are preserved at the library of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris as MS. 407; Baudot's notes are in the library of the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers in Paris as MS. 8 Fa 40(2).

5 Payen, J.: ‘Une source de la pensée de Sadi Carnot.’ Arch. int. Hist. Sci. 21 (1968), p. 15–32.Google Scholar

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12 Partington, J. R.: A History of Chemistry London 1962, iii, chap. XIV.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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17 Encyclopaedia Brittannica (3d ed., Edinburgh 1797), vol. xviiGoogle Scholar, article on ‘Steam engine’.

18 Rees, A. (ed.): The cyclopaedia; or universal dictionary of arts, sciences and literature (39 vol.) London 1819Google Scholar, vol. xxxiv, article on ‘Steam Engine’.

19 Payen, , op. cit. (6).Google Scholar

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21 Carnot, ibid., p. [11]–[12]n.

22 Carnot, ibid., p. [27].

23 Lervig, Ph. ‘The existence of a work function in Carnot's theory’, in Taton, R. (ed.) Sadi Carnot et l'essor de la Thermodynamique (Paris, Éditions du C. N. R. S., 1976), p. 199–211.Google Scholar

24 Carnot, , op. cit. (1), p. [79]–[88].Google Scholar

25 Carnot, ibid., p. [65]

26 Carnot, ibid., p. [98].

27 Carnot, ibid., p. [17]–[27].

28 Carnot, ibid., p. [100]–[102]n.

29 Gabbey, and Herivel, , op. cit. (14).Google Scholar

30 Carnot, , op. cit. (1), p. [100]n.Google Scholar

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33 Farey, in Rees, , op. cit. (18).Google Scholar

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35 Carnot, ibid., p. [26]–[27].

36 Kuhn, Th. S.: ‘Sadi Carnot and the Cagnara Engine.’ Isis, 52, 1961, p. 567–574CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. p. 571.

37 This will be explained in my forthcoming book on Sadi Carnot and the birth of thermodynamics.

38 Payen, , op. cit. (5).Google Scholar

39 Payen, , op. cit. (6).Google Scholar

40 Rees, , op. cit. (18).Google Scholar

41 Sadi, Carnot: ‘Trad. Machine à vapeur de Mr Watt’Google Scholar (manuscript in Carnot's handwriting in the file ‘Sadi Carnot. Promotion 1812’ in the main library, Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France).

42 Fox, in Carnot, , op. cit. (1), note 62, p. 202.Google Scholar See also Cardwell, D. S. L.: From Watt to Clausius. The rise of thermodynamics in the early industrial age, London 1971.Google Scholar

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44 Clément, and Desormes, : ‘Sur le nouveau procédé de congélation de M. Leslie, et sur des applications de ce procédé considéré comme moyen de congélation’. Ann. Chim., 78 (1811), p. 183–202.Google ScholarLeslie, J.: ‘Méthode nouvelle de produire et d'euhetenir la congélation.’ Ann. Chim. Phys. 78 (1811), p. 177–82.Google ScholarLeslie, J. ‘On a new Mode of Artificial Congelation’, Phil. Mag., Vol. 51 (1818), p. 411–421.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

45 Poisson, S.-D.: ‘Sur la Chaleur des gaz et des vapeurs.’ Ann. Chim. Phys. 23 (1823) p. 337–52.Google ScholarPoisson, S.-D.: ‘Addition au Mémoire de M. Poisson.’ Ann. Chim. Phys. 23 (1823) p. 407–8.Google Scholar

46 Fox, , op. cit. (10), p. 16n.Google Scholar

47 Payen, , op. cit. (6)Google Scholar

48 Gabbey, and Herivel, , op. cit. (14), see (1), p. 204 and 235.Google Scholar

49 Mendoza, E.: ‘Contributions to the Study of Sadi Carnot and his work’. Arch. int. Hist. Sci. 12 (1959), p. 377–96.Google Scholar

50 D. S. B., ‘Prony’.

51 On the Cagniard-Latour engine, see Carnot, , op. cit. (1), p. 185.Google Scholar

52 Mendoza, E.: ‘Sadi Carnot and the Cagnard engine.’ Isis, 54, (1963) p. 262–3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

53 Méthode de Nomenclature Chimique, Proposée par MM. de Morveau, Lavoisier, Bertholet sic., & de Fourcroy. On y a joint Un nouveau Systemeème de Charactères Chimiques, adaptés à cette Nomenclature, par M. Hassenfratz & Adet, Paris 1787, p. 30.Google Scholar See Partington, , op. cit (12), iii, p. 465.Google Scholar

54 Payen, , op. cit. (5), p. 37Google Scholar and Fox, , op. cit. (8), p. 248Google Scholar, note 21.

55 Payen, , op. cit. (6)Google Scholar; Francoeur notes, p. {53}.

56 Payen, , op. cit. (6).Google Scholar

57 Brown, S.: ‘Description d'une machine destinée à élever l'eau par le moyen du vide, et à servir de moteur à d'autres machines; inventée par M. Samuel Brown’, Bulletin de la Société d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie Nationale, 23, 08 1824, p. 225–8Google Scholar (Extract from London Journal of arts and sciences, 08 1824).Google Scholar See also Payen, J.: ‘La pratique des machines à vapeur au temps de Carnot’Google Scholar, Taton, , op. cit. (23), p. 128.Google Scholar

58 Carnot, , op. cit. (1), p. [112].Google Scholar

59 Fox, in Carnot, , op. cit. (1), p. 210, note 95.Google Scholar

60 Carnet, , op. cit. (1), p. [86]n.Google Scholar

61 Gabbey, and Herivel, , op. cit. (14).Google Scholar

62 Fox, , op. cit. (8), p. 247.Google Scholar

63 Desormes, and Clément, , op. cit. (3).Google Scholar

64 Robison, , op. cit. (17).Google Scholar

65 Farey, in Rees, , op. cit. (18).Google Scholar