Carnot's diagram[edit]

In the adjacent diagram, from Carnot's 1824 work, Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire,[4] there
are "two bodies A and B, kept each at a constant temperature, that of A being higher than that of B.
These two bodies to which we can give, or from which we can remove the heat without causing their
temperatures to vary, exercise the functions of two unlimited reservoirs of caloric. We will call the
first the furnace and the second the refrigerator."[5] Carnot then explains how we can obtain motive
power, i.e., "work", by carrying a certain quantity of heat from body A to body B. It also acts as a
cooler and hence can also act as a refrigerator.

Modern diagram[edit]

Carnot engine diagram (modern) - where an

amount of heat Q flows from a high temperature T furnace through the fluid of the "working
H H

body" (working substance) and the remaining heat Q flows into the cold sink T , thus forcing the
C C

working substance to do mechanical work W on the surroundings, via cycles of contractions and
expansions.
The previous image shows the original piston-and-cylinder diagram used by Carnot in discussing his
ideal engine. The figure at right shows a block diagram of a generic heat engine, such as the Carnot
engine. In the diagram, the "working body" (system), a term introduced by Clausius in 1850, can be
any fluid or vapor body through which heat Q can be introduced or transmitted to produce work.
Carnot had postulated that the fluid body could be any substance capable of expansion, such as
vapor of water, vapor of alcohol, vapor of mercury, a permanent gas, air, etc. Although in those early
years, engines came in a number of configurations, typically QH was supplied by a boiler, wherein
water was boiled over a furnace; QC was typically removed by a stream of cold flowing water in the
form of a condenser located on a separate part of the engine. The output work, W, is transmitted by
the movement of the piston as it is used to turn a crank-arm, which in turn was typically used to
power a pulley so as to lift water out of flooded salt mines. Carnot defined work as "weight lifted
through a height".