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Mechanical Engineering Series

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Lin-Shu Wang

A Treatise of Heat and Energy

Lin-Shu Wang
Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA

ISSN 0941-5122 e-ISSN 2192-063X

Mechanical Engineering Series
ISBN 978-3-030-05745-9 e-ISBN 978-3-030-05746-6
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05746-6

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Heat and work flow for a Carnot cycle , which is an example of extracting from the
heat sink reservoir “heat of the amount, ”, (that would have been lost in a

spontaneous heat transfer process) for the production of work,W = .

To Ming
Preface
Thermodynamic understanding of heat and energy is based on the
mechanical theory of heat (MTH), which resulted from the synthesis, by
Kelvin and Clausius, of Carnot’s theory of heat and the Mayer–Joule
principle. Yet, there are no good definitions for heat or energy in the
current literature on thermodynamics. It is noted that the advent of the
entropy principle created the scientific stream of thermodynamics (a
new stream branched off from its original source, the engineering
stream) and led to, in quick succession, the successful formulation of
equilibrium thermodynamics. Here, I make the case that the impression
of the Kelvin–Clausius synthesis’ success is formed from its success in
producing a coherent system of equilibrium thermodynamics, not in
resulting in a coherent system of engineering stream of
thermodynamics—the failure of which is reflected in the fact that
engineering thermodynamics cannot even talk about heat and energy
without self-contradictions as well as fail to provide students of
thermodynamics real grasp on reversibility. This disquisition–essay
makes the case that the uneven achievement of Joule, Kelvin, and
Clausius is because they made the classic error of equating correlation
between heat and work to causality between heat and work, and, as a
result, prevented the (later) formulation of the entropy principle from
realizing its full power. While this error has been pointed out in a
number of papers, the authors of those papers advocated, for removing
the error, a return to Carnot’s theory as a caloric theory of heat. That
was clearly a mistake: it is argued here that Carnot’s theory is a
relational theory of heat not an ontological theory and, in fact, it can be
made to incorporate with, ontologically, either the caloric theory or
MTH. This disquisition essay presents a relational, i.e., predicative,
theory of heat embracing fully MTH’s ontology for an updated
understanding of heat, spontaneous energy conversion, and reversible-
like processes.
Lin-Shu Wang
Stony Brook, USA
Symbols and Abbreviations
A Area,
Helmholtz function, , kJ

AF Air–fuel ratio
c Speed of sound, m/s
Constant pressure specific heat, kJ/kg-K
Constant pressure molar specific heat, kJ/kmol-K
Constant volume specific heat, kJ/kg-K
Constant volume molar specific heat, kJ/kmol-K
Constant pressure heat capacity, kJ/K
Constant volume heat capacity, kJ/K
Specific total energy, kJ/kg
Molar specific total energy, kJ/kmol
e Total energy,E = U + KE + PE , kJ
e
E Exergy, kJ
Ex Material exergy
Ex MTL Mass specific exergy, kJ/kg
ex Entropy growth potential, kJ/K
EGP
F Force, kN
FA Fuel–air ratio
fe Flow specific exergy, defined by (120)
g Specific Gibbs function, kJ/kg
G Gibbs function,G = H TS , kJ
h Specific enthalpy, kJ/kg
H Enthalpy,H = U + pV , kJ
Enthalpy of formation, kJ/kmol
Enthalpy of formation at 25 ℃ and 1 atm
Higher heating value, kJ/kg fuel
HHV Joule’s constant (the MEH constant), /
J
J Q Heat flow
J S Entropy flow
k Specific heat ratio,

K p Equilibrium constant
KE Kinetic energy, , kJ

LHV Lower heating value, kJ/kg fuel

m Mass, kg
Mass flow rate, kg/s
M Molar mass, kg/kmol
MEH Mechanical equivalent of heat
MTH Mechanical theory of heat
n Normal unit vector
N Number of moles, kmol
p Pressure, kPa
Partial pressure, kPa
Surroundings pressure, kPa
Pressure at 1 atm (101.325 kPa)
Under constant reservoir pressure
Potential energy, kJ
PE Predicative entropic theory of heat
PETH Heat transfer per unit mass, kJ/kg
q Heat transfer per unit molar mass, kJ/kmol
q
Q Heat transfer, kJ
Heat transfer rate, kW
Heat transfer with high-temperature body
Heat transfer with high-temperature body
Heat transfer with low-temperature body
 Heat transfer with low-temperature, i.e., cold body
Heat transfer with low-temperature body
System heat exchange of reversible event
System heat exchange of spontaneous event
Additional heat extracted for the reversible event,

Universal gas constant, 8.31447 kJ/kmol-K

Gas constant ofi th specie, kJ/kg-K
Specific entropy, kJ/kg-K
R Molar specific entropy, kJ/kmol-K
R i Entropy, kJ/K
s Time, s
s
S Temperature, or K
t
Temperature of high-temperature body, K
T
Temperature of high-temperature body, K
Temperature of low-temperature body, K
Temperature of low-temperature cold body, K
Temperature of low-temperature body, K
Surroundings temperature, K
Standard temperature at 298.15 K
Under constant reservoir temperature
Specific internal energy, kJ/kg
Molar specific internal energy, kJ/kmol
Internal energy, kJ
u Specific volume,
u
U Molar specific volume,
v
v Volume,
V
 Volume flow rate,

V Velocity,

W Work, kJ
Reversible, or maximum useful, work
Power, kW
Quality
x Mole fraction
xi
Mass fraction
yi

Greek Letters
Thermal expansion coefficient,
Finite change in quantity
Thermal efficiency
Absolute temperature, defined by Eq. (46)
Integrating denominator
Chemical potential
Stoichiometric coefficient
Extent of reaction, kmol
Density,

Subscripts
a Air
A High temperature (as inT A )
atm Atmospheric
B Low temperature (as inT B )
C Cold body
cv Control volume
cs Surface of control volume
e Exit conditions
f Saturated liquid
fg Difference in property between saturated liquid and saturated
vapor
g Saturated vapor
G Growth
H High temperature or hot body
i Inlet conditions
i i th component
L Low temperature
P Potential
rev Reversible
s Isentropic
sat Saturated
spon Spontaneous event
surr Surroundings
sys System
0 Standard temperature/pressure at 298.15 K and 1 atm
0 Reference surroundings
1 Initial state
2 Final state

Superscripts
r Reservoir: process under constant reservoir temperature or
pressure condition
0 Standard temperature/pressure at 298.15 K and 1 atm
Contents
1 Introduction:​Temperature and Some Comment on Work
1.​1 Heat, Its Two Laws
1.​2 Thermal Equilibrium and Temperature
1.​3 Thermodynamic Systems and the General Concept of
Equilibrium
1.​3.​1 Nonequilibrium and Irreversibility
1.​4 Dimension and Unit of Temperature
1.​4.​1 Universal Constants:​Dimensionless Conversion
Factors and Dimensional Universal Constants
1.​5 Thermal Equation of State for Ideal Gases
1.​6 Mixtures of Ideal Gases
1.​7 Work
1.8 Calculation of for “Quasi-static Processes”

1.​9 Difference Between a Mass Body and a Thermodynamic

System
1.​9.​1 Quasi-static Process and Work Reservoir
1.​9.​2 A Mass Body and a Thermodynamic System:​No
Thermodynamic System is an Island
1.​10 Quantity of Heat
References
2 Calorimetry and the Caloric Theory of Heat, the Measurement of
Heat
2.​1 Theories of Heat
2.​2 Direct Heating:​Sensible Heat and Latent Heat
2.​3 The Doctrine of Latent and Sensible Heats in an Internally
Reversible Medium
 2.​4 Adiabatic Heating
References
3 The First Law:​The Production of Heat and the Principle of
Conservation of Energy
3.​1 Introduction
3.​2 Adiabatic Work and Internal Energy
3.​3 Heat Exchange and the First Law of Thermodynamics
3.​4 Energy Conservation in a Reversible Universe
3.5 Irreversible Universe: Heat versusHeat
3.​6 Enthalpy
3.​7 Heat Capacity and Molar Heat Capacity
3.​8 Joule’s Law (Joule Free Expansion):​The Caloric Equation of
State for Ideal Gases
3.​9 Quasi-static Heating and the Adiabatic Transformation of a
Gas
3.​9.​1 Isochoric processes
3.​9.​2 Isobaric processes
3.​9.​3 Adiabatic Transformation of an Ideal Gas
3.​10 Energy Analyses of Processes in Open Systems
3.​11 The Story of Heat
References
4 Carnot’s Theory of Heat, and Kelvin’s Adoption of Which in
Terms of Energy
4.​1 Unidirectional Nature of Processes and the Production of
Work
4.​2 The Carnot Cycle and Carnot’s Principle
4.​3 The Absolute Thermodynamic Temperature
4.​3.​1 Carnot’s Reversible Efficiency
 4.​4 Carnot’s Function and Kelvin’s Resolution of the Conflict
Between MEH and Carnot’s Principle
4.​5 Falling of Caloric in Reversible Processes
4.​5.​1 Absolute Thermodynamic Temperature and the Ideal-
Gas Thermometric Temperature
4.​5.​2 Falling of Caloric
4.​5.​3 The Carnot Formula and the Kelvin Formula
4.5.4 Caloric orHeat : Interpreted as Both Heat Flow and
“Entropy” Flow
4.​5.​5 Equivalence of the Clausius Statement and the Kelvin-
Planck Statement
4.​6 Limitation in the Amount of Heat to be Converted into
Mechanical Energy
4.​7 The Energy Principle, A Self-evident Proposition?​
4.​8 Does the Heat-as-Energy Ontology Infer Equivalence-
Convertibility Synonym?​
References
5 Entropy and the Entropy Principle
5.​1 What Determines the Direction of Natural Processes?​
5.​2 A Property of Reversible Cycles, the First Clausius Theorem
5.​2.​1 The First Clausius Theorem
5.​3 The Entropy, a New State Variable
5.​3.​1 Gibbs U-V-S Surface
5.​3.​2 Entropy Change in Isobaric Processes
5.​3.​3 The Entropy of Ideal Gases
5.​3.​4 The Entropy of Liquids/​Solids, An Approximate
Formula
 5.​4 Entropy Change in a System Undergoing an Irreversible
Process
5.​5 The Principle of the Increase of Entropy
5.​5.​1 Examples of the Application of the Entropy Principle
5.​6 The Definition of Heat
5.​7 Statistical Mechanics Formula of Boltzmann
5.​8 Isentropic Processes and Carnot Cycles
5.​9 Mixtures of Ideal Gases and Their Properties
5.​9.​1 Entropy and Specific Gibbs Function of Mixture in
Terms of T-p
5.10 The Examples of Reversibly Controlled “Free Expansion”
and Reversible Mixing of Ideal Gases: Why Kelvin’s
SecondGeneral Conclusion Is Not True?
5.​10.​1 Controlled Expansion of the Oxygen System/​Vacuum
System
5.​10.​2 Controlled Expansion of the Nitrogen System/​
Vacuum System
5.10.3 Reversible Mixing of the Oxygen and the

Nitrogen Systems

5.​10.​4 In Sum
5.​10.​5 Kelvin’s Energy Principle
5.​11 Concluding Remarks:​Applications to Special States of
Thermodynamic Equilibrium
References
6 Reversible Processes Versus Quasi-static Processes, and the
Condition of Internal Reversibility
6.​1 The Project of Classical Formalism
 6.​2 Quasi-static Processes and the Classical (Caratheodory)
Formalism
6.​3 Infinitely Dense State Function Does Not Always Equal to
Infinitely Slow Process
6.​4 Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium and the Modern
(Brussels School) Formalism
6.​4.​1 The Entropy Principle of the Modern Formalism
6.4.2 Temperatureof Clausius’ Inequality
6.​4.​3 Internal Reversibility as the Condition for Defining
Entropy
6.​5 Useful Work and Action, Which Are What Distinguishes
Reversible-Like Processes from Spontaneous Natural Processes
6.​5.​1 Nonreversible Processes and Reversible-like
Processes
6.6 Internal Reversibility and the Question in Sect. 2.3

6.​7 Conclusion:​Nature as It Is and It Can Become

References
7 Free Energy, Exergy, and Energy:​The Exergetic Content of Energy
7.​1 Thermodynamic Potentials and Free Energies
7.​1.​1 The Extremum Principle for Thermodynamic
Equilibriums of Composite Systems
7.​1.​2 Helmholtz Free Energy and Gibbs Free Energy
7.​1.​3 Example:​Thermodynamics of a Battery
7.​2 Engineering Inference of the Entropy-Energy Principles
7.​2.​1 Why Exergy?​
7.​2.​2 Energy Equation for Open Systems
7.​3 A Brief Review of the Concept of Exergy
7.​3.​1 Exergy Components
 7.​3.​2 Material Exergy
7.​3.​3 Discussion
7.​4 Thermodynamic Processes and Exergy Balance
7.​4.​1 Control Volume Exergy Balance
7.​5 Chemical Exergy and Exergy of Heat and Cold
7.​5.​1 Energy and Exergy Equations for a Control Volume
7.​5.​2 Relation of Eqs.​(118A) and (121) to the Gibbs Free
Energy
7.​5.​3 Exergy of Heat and Cold
7.​6 Energy:​Exergetic Content of Energy and the Definition of
Energy
References
8 The Second Law: The Entropy Growth Potential Principle and the
Three-Place Relation inHeat Phenomena
8.​1 Introduction:​The Energy Conversion Doctrine Truism
8.​1.​1 Energy Conversion Doctrine and Energetics
8.​2 Laws of Balance and the Calculation of Entropy Production
8.​2.​1 Calculation or Determination of Entropy Production
8.​3 The Entropic Drive Corollary
8.​4 Entropic Drive Corollary for Isolated Systems:​Pure
Spontaneity
8.​5 The Entropy Growth Potential Principle
8.​5.​1 Conceptual Differentiation of Entropy Growth and
Entropy Growth Potential
8.​6 The Predicative Entropic Theory of Heat
8.​6.​1 Peirce’s Reduction Thesis and Carnot’s Theory as a
Triadic Relational Theory of Heat
8.​6.​2 The Predicative Entropic Theory of Heat (PETH)
 8.​7 The Triadic Framework:​All Reversible Processes Are Heat
Extraction Processes
8.​7.​1 Definition of Waste Heat
8.​7.​2 Kinds of EGP’s:​Stock EGP and Natural (Ongoing) EGP
8.​7.​3 Additional Examples of Heat Extraction
8.7.4 Reversible Free Heat and Free Energy

8.​7.​5 Chemical Composite Systems:​Gibbs Free Energy

8.​8 Entropy Growth Potential and Reversibility’s Triadic
Framework
References
9 Applications to Special States of Thermodynamic Equilibrium:​
Gibbsian Thermodynamics for Physical and Chemical Applications
9.​1 The Fundamental Functions of State and the Fundamental
Differentials
9.​1.​1 Equations of State for Ideal Gases and the Ideal Gas
Fundamental Equation of State
9.​2 Open Systems
9.​3 Open Systems with Semi-permeable Membrane Opening,
and Multicomponent Closed Systems
9.​4 Formal Structure of Gibbsian Thermodynamics
9.​4.​1 The Euler Equation
9.​4.​2 Alternative Fundamental Functions and Fundamental
Differentials
9.​4.​3 The Maxwell Relations
9.​5 Determination of Thermodynamic Properties Based on
Measurable Data
9.​5.​1 Basic Tools
9.​5.​2 Examples
 9.​5.​3 Why the Whole of Fresh Water Lakes Do Not Freeze in
Winter?​
9.​5.​4 Convective Equilibrium of Atmospheric Air at
Hydrostatic Equilibrium
9.​6 Thermal Equilibrium and Mechanical Equilibrium
9.​6.​1 Thermal Equilibrium
9.​6.​2 Mechanical Equilibrium
9.​7 Gaseous Mixtures and Their Properties
9.​7.​1 Specific Gibbs Function of Mixture in Terms of T-p
9.​8 Combustion Chemical Reactions and Enthalpy Balance
9.​8.​1 Enthalpy of Formation
9.​8.​2 Fuel Heating Value (HV:​HHV and LHV)
9.​9 Chemical Equilibrium (Gaseous Reaction Product
Composition)
References
10 A Theory of Heat as Prelude to Engineering Thermodynamics
10.​1 Engineering Thermodynamics
10.​2 Heat Transfer Phenomena are Described by Governing
Equations
10.​2.​1 Governing Equation for Heat Transfer Problems
10.​3 Energy Analysis and Exergy Analysis
10.​3.​1 Rate of Work Done by a Control Volume and Energy
Balance in Integral Form for a Control Volume
10.​3.​2 Exergy Balance in Integral Form for a Control Volume
10.​4 Shaft Work Entails Mechanism for Its Fulfillment
10.​5 Determination and Causal Closure
10.​6 Engineering for Efficiency
References
Glossary
Index
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
L.-S. Wang, A Treatise of Heat and Energy, Mechanical Engineering Series
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05746-6_1

1. Introduction: Temperature and Some

Comment on Work
Lin-Shu Wang1

(1) Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA

Lin-Shu Wang
Email: Lin-Shu.Wang@stonybrook.edu

Just as Newton first conclusively showed that this is a world of

masses, so [Sadi Carnot and] Willard Gibbs first revealed it as a
world of systems.
—L.J. Henderson in The Order of Nature [1] [p. 126 (1917)].

Abstract
This introductory chapter informs the reader that this book is a
disquisition of heat and energy. Understanding of heat and energy has
two general requirements: the reader must achieve mastery of both the
first law of thermodynamics and the second law of thermodynamics ,
and the reader must appreciate the difference between thermodynamic
objects as systems and mechanical objects as mere mass bodies.
Treatment of heat begins, in this chapter, with the introduction of the
intensity of heat , i.e., temperature , and equation of state for ideal gases
and ideal-gas mixtures.

Keywords Heat – Thermodynamic system – Thermodynamic

equilibrium – Temperature – Ideal gases – Thermal equation of state for
ideal gases – Mixtures of ideal gases – Dalton’s law – Work
Thermodynamics is mainly concerned with relation between heat and
mechanical work. This relation is prescribed by two premises, one of
which is equivalence between heat and mechanical work (equivalence
principle) established by Mayer and Joule (the other premise is
Carnot’s principle ). A central question addressed by this title is the
meaning of this “equivalence”.
Thermodynamics is a theory of heat. At the present time, the
prevailing theory is the mechanical theory of heat (MTH ). One
remarkable thing about MTH is that there are no suitable definitions on
heat and energy in MTH ; the most commonly used ones are “heat is
energy in transit,” and “energy is the capacity for doing work,” both of
which are problematic. Without good definitions, a theory of heat and
energy is destined to be a disappointment. A new theory of heat is
developed here with the formulation of acceptable definitions to be its
minimum requirement. I present the definitions of work , heat, energy,
and a new term (to be introduced), entropy growth potential, here first
without explanation (which will be fully accounted for by the end of
Chap. 8):
Work is energy in transit.
Heat , as denoted by Q, is energy and entropy in transit; waste heat or
heat in a body (i.e., heat used as short for thermal internal energy ) is
high-entropy form of energy.
Energy is a conserved quantity that can be neither created nor
destroyed; an important characteristic of the quantity is its exergetic
content, which is measured in terms of energy system’s capacity for
doing work ; though energy of a system and its interacting
surroundings cannot be destroyed, the system-surroundings’ capacity
for doing work is being lost incessantly.
Entropy growth potential (EGP) is the driver of every event in a given
Poincare range ; in the mechanical theory of heat (MTH , i.e., standard
thermodynamics), the “consumption” of heat and the “consumption” of
energy are treated as proxies of EGP, which is the real driver—the
correct identification of the real driver leads to, in departure from MTH
, how we classify “energy conversion” processes.
 This essay will succeed in its goal if a reader in going through it has
a good grasp on the meaning of heat and energy as well as the two laws
of thermodynamics.

1.1 Heat, Its Two Laws

When our ancestors learned to manipulate fire, they crossed the
threshold from beast to human and started off on the long journey
seeking answers to those simple questions that continue to haunt us:
What is warmth and what is heat ? How is heat created? What heat can
do for us or what we can do with heat? This essay tells a story of heat ,
which is a long fascinating one, one that is still profoundly relevant to
today’s technologically ultra-modern society.
The key to this story of heat (or the science of thermodynamics) is
two laws, the first law and the second law: the first law of
thermodynamics (the principle of conservation of energy) asserts that
energy can neither be created nor destroyed; the second law of
thermodynamics (the entropy principle) posits the unidirectionality of
the universe (in the sense that entropy always increases), or that the
universe is irreversible. The idea of energy conservation is an extremely
useful concept with the broadest application, and, generally, well
understood by students of thermodynamics—with the singular
exception of the aforementioned “precise meaning of equivalence.” The
idea of entropy growth is equally useful and profoundly powerful, yet it
is not well understood by students of thermodynamics. As a result, its
powerful significance is not as fully appreciated as that of energy
conservation is: for instance, the meaning of equivalence between heat
and work is universally considered to be a matter of the first law
without the appreciation that, in fact, one cannot have a true
comprehension of which without the second law.
For an additional instance, the economic activity of man is often
expressed in terms of production. But, we are unclear about what is
really being produced: “For man is not a producer but only a converter,
and for every job of conversion he needs primary products [matter]. In
particular, his power to convert depends on primary energy…” noted
Schumacher in Small is Beautiful [2]. Man can neither produce (i.e.,
create) primary matter nor create primary energy: what is produced is
not the matter or energy of a product, but the function of the product in
its new form—the value in the new product system. When secondary
energy (or energy carrier) is “produced” from primary energy, primary
energy is merely converted or transformed into secondary energy, a
different form of energy of higher value. When an energy carrier is
“consumed” for “producing” a material product, there is no destruction
of energy or creation of mass, but the conversion of the energy carrier
into heat and residual energy in the product and the conversion of raw
materials into the material product of higher value.
What makes any conversion possible is the result of
unidirectionality in nature (i.e., the entropy principle _see Chap. 5), or
unidirectionality in energy of various forms (i.e., the energy principle
_see Chap. 4). It should be noted that the energy principle is subsumed,
as will be shown in Chap. 8, under the entropy principle, thus, not a
principle independent from the entropy principle ; the energy principle
derives its validity from the principle of universal entropy growth.
Without the entropy principle, no economic activity, no value creation,
and no life are possible. All these and everything else on Earth are the
result of the entropy growth.
The essay will suggest that the reason for the second law being not
correctly understood even today is the outcome of the way it was
formulated. The law had its genesis in Carnot’s 1824 paper while the
genesis for the first law was the discovery of the “equivalence principle”
by Rumford, Mayer, and Joule over the period from 1798 to 1850. The
two competing premises were thought to be competing theories of heat
. Both laws were then simultaneously formulated by Kelvin and by
Clausius when each realized that the apparent conflict between Carnot
and Rumford–Mayer–Joule could be resolved not by determining which
theory-of-heat was right and the other wrong but by according the
theory of equivalence principle the status of being ontologically correct,
while finding in Carnot’s treatment (even though the treatment had
been based on wrong ontology) an important element that must be
incorporated into the theory. That element concerns the impossibility
question, “what kinds of machines, e.g., PMM of the second kind, are
impossible and what types of thermodynamic processes are ‘forbidden’
in nature?” That theory is, of course, the mechanical theory of heat
(MTH) —the cornerstone of which is the equivalence principle which
became the first law. The second law was the formalization of the
necessary element into restrictions in the transformation of heat into
work.
But, this outcome was not Carnot’s take on his principle (see
Sects. 4.​2, p. 64 and 4.​5), which he viewed to be the cornerstone of
understanding transformation of heat into work rather than being
merely a necessary restriction on possible types of heat →work
transformations. In other words, the second law as it was formulated in
MTH is incomplete and, as a result, the law does not enjoy equal status
with the first law and the understanding of heat is correspondingly
incoherent.
Ultimately, the goal of this essay is to accord equal status to the first
law and the second law in its complete form.

1.2 Thermal Equilibrium and Temperature

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, there were two competing

ontological conceptions of heat : the caloric theory and the mechanical
theory. Both Fourier and Carnot, the creators of this science (Fourier
treated heat transfer as a workless dissipation, while, for Carnot, heat
gradient was the source of dissipation-less work ), used caloric theory
productively to develop their theses.1 Only later in the middle of the
nineteenth century, the caloric theory was overthrown and superseded
by the mechanical theory of heat (Mechanische Wä rmetheorie, or MTH
) which evolved, with further clarification of the second law of
“thermodynamics,” into modern thermodynamics and statistical
mechanics.
At this early point of discourse, we need not to be concerned with
the precise nature of heat , only with what we can do with heat. Planck
described the goal of his treatise [3] being to offer a uniform viewpoint
for the entire field and, for that purpose, his method was “distinct from
the other two, in that it does not advance the mechanical theory of heat
, but, keeping aloof from definite assumptions as to its nature, starts
direct[ly] from a few very general empirical facts, mainly the two
fundamental principles of Thermodynamics.” I share with Planck the
goal in seeking a uniform point of view for the entire field: rather than
aiming for a unity of science (i.e., reductionism), the goal is for a unity of
knowledge (consilience as originally defined by Whewell), which is a
less lofty goal but one reachable and still deeply satisfactory. By having
a good idea of what we can do with heat, we shall have a good
understanding of heat , even in absence of a precisely worded
definition.
The conception of heat arises from the sensation of warmth or
coldness, which is immediately experienced upon touching the surface
of a body. This direct sensation, however, furnishes no quantitative
scientific measure of a body’s state with regard to heat ; it yields only
qualitative impressions of warmth or coldness, which vary according to
external circumstances and subjective perceptions. For quantitative
purposes, we utilize the change of volume which takes place in all
bodies when heated under constant pressure , for this admits of exact
measurement. Heating produces in most substances and under most
conditions an increase of volume, and thus we can tell whether a body
gets hotter or colder with a quantitative yardstick, a purely mechanical
observation affording a much higher degree of precision.
If two bodies, one of which feels colder than the other, are brought
together (for example, a good size ice cube and warm water), it is
invariably found that the warmer (or hotter) body is cooled to, and the
colder one heated up to a certain point, and then change ceases. The
two bodies are then said to be in thermal equilibrium. Experience shows
that such a state of general equilibrium sets in, not only when two, but
also when any number of bodies initially at different degrees of warmth
(or coldness) are brought into mutual contact. From this follows the
proposition, known as the zeroth law of thermodynamics (see Fig. 1.1):

Fig. 1.1 The zeroth law of thermodynamics (cross-shading boxes designate adiabatic
walls; heavy lines diathermic walls)

If a body, A, be in thermal equilibrium with another body, B, and

with a second different body C, then B and C are in thermal
equilibrium with one another.
For, if we bring A, B, and C together so that each touches the other
two, then, according to our supposition of thermal equilibrium, there
will be equilibrium at the points of contact AB and AC, and, therefore,
also at the contact BC. If it were not so, no general thermal equilibrium
would be possible, which is contrary to experience.
These facts enable us to compare the degree of heat of two bodies, B
and C, without having to bring them into direct contact but by bringing
each body into contact of an arbitrarily selected third body, A. This third
standard body, for example, can be a column of mercury enclosed in a
vessel of capillary tube and bulb. By observing the volume of A (height
of mercury in the case of capillary tube mercury thermometer) in each
case, it is possible to tell whether B and C are in thermal equilibrium
and if not, which of the two is the hotter body. The degree of heat of A,
or of a body in thermal equilibrium with A, can thus be defined by
either the volume of A or volume of A in reference to some arbitrarily
selected normal volume.
One established practice is the selection of normal volumes when A
is in thermal equilibrium with melting ice under atmospheric pressure
and with steam under atmospheric pressure as the two reference
points, or fixed points (the ice point and the steam point) and the
division of the volume difference (or height difference) between the
normal volume at the steam point, X1, and at the ice point, X2, by 100.
Reading based on this choice of units is called temperature , t, in
degrees Centigrade,

which ranges from 0 °C at the ice point to 100 °C at the steam point.
Temperature is the quantitative measure of the degree of heat . Two
bodies of equal temperature are, therefore, in thermal equilibrium and
vice versa.
The volume of a thermometric substance is one example of
thermometric properties; other substance properties (pressure,
electric resistance, thermal EMF, etc.) can also be used as thermometric
properties. The temperature readings of no two thermometric
substances agree in general except at 0 and 100 °C. The definition of
temperature given above is, therefore, somewhat arbitrary. This will be
rectified in terms of its numerical accuracy in Sect. 1.5. The definition of
thermodynamic temperature (or absolute temperature ) in terms of its
theoretical/conceptual meaning will be given in Sect. 4.​3.

1.3 Thermodynamic Systems and the General

Concept of Equilibrium
A common practice in physics starts with the separation of a finite
portion of matter or a restricted region of space from its surroundings.
The portion/region that is set aside and on which the investigation is
focused is called the system, and the totality of everything outside the
system that has a direct bearing on its behavior is known as the
surroundings.
Equilibrium in simple systems In microscopic physics—take the
Newtonian mechanics, for example, the state of a system composed of N
mass points requires the knowledge of 6N time-dependent variables (3
variables for the position and 3 for the momentum for each of the N
mass points). Thermodynamics deals with the macroscopic set of the N
particles of the corresponding system and, in this case, it is unnecessary
to know the motion of each particle individually in order to represent
the thermodynamic state, i.e., the macroscopic properties, of the
system. When a simple system is in a state of thermodynamic
equilibrium , the average properties of the system can be described in
terms of time-independent thermodynamic coordinates.
Thermodynamic coordinates are also known as state variables or
properties (or property functions). Examples of thermodynamic
coordinates are volume and mass, pressure and temperature.
Imagine that an experiment is performed on a constant mass of gas
in a vessel equipped so that the pressure p, volume V, and temperature
t can be measured. (Note that t is temperature in one of the empirical
scales; later we shall use T to denote temperature defined by a gas
thermometer or at the absolute scale [Sect. 4.​3].) The empirical finding
of such an experiment is that two of the three variables of a simple
system in equilibrium can be set arbitrarily; once the two variables are
set, the value of the third variable at equilibrium will be determined.
For example, once V and t are chosen, the value of p is determined. That
is, the three variables satisfy a functional relationship, .
We shall call the concrete expression of a functional relationship of state
variables the equation of state.
When a system is not in a state of equilibrium, no single-valued
thermodynamic coordinates are defined for the system as a whole. The
description of the nonequilibrium system is still possible based on the
concept of local thermodynamic equilibrium,

The assumption that the same equilibrium thermodynamic

relations, , which is originally determined for a
whole equilibrium system, for instance, remain valid for the
 state variables assigned to every elemental volume of the
nonequilibrium system.
(Local thermodynamic equilibrium is a central concept in the
modern formalism of thermodynamics, as it will be presented in Chap. 6,
Sect. 6.4.) Nonequilibrium systems are in general time-dependent as a
result of the flows of various kinds driven by their corresponding
“thermodynamic forces” in the interior of the nonequilibrium systems,
e.g., a temperature gradient drives heat flow; a pressure gradient drives
fluid motion; a chemical affinity drives chemical reaction (see
discussion in Chaps. 7 and 9).
Composite systems Composite systems are one variety of
nonequilibrium systems that are time independent. A composite
system maintains a time-independent disequilibrium existence by its
internal constraints. Examples of internal constraints are “semi-
permeable walls” (introduced by van’t Hoff), “impermeable diathermic
walls”, “adiabatic partitions”, “restricted adiabatic partitions” (which
allow transmission of mechanical energy), “chemical reaction barriers”.
A composite system is made of several simple subsystems, each of
which is defined by the corresponding internal constraints. Within each
simple subsystem, which is either defined by a physical wall, a movable
partition, or by a non-spatially identifiable chemical barrier, a state of
“meta-stable” equilibrium prevails.
Once a constraint is removed, the composite system will undergo
change toward a meta-stable equilibrium that is defined by the
remaining constraints; if all the constraints are removed the resulting
change to the system will eventually bring the system into its internal
stable equilibrium state. The determination of the internal equilibrium
state is considered by Callen to be “the core of thermodynamic theory”:

The single, all-encompassing problem of thermodynamics is the

determination of the equilibrium state that eventually results
after the removal of internal constraints in a closed, composite
system. [4]

There is merit in the identification of thermodynamics as the

science of tendency toward equilibrium: the clear focus resulted in
treatment as one reader put it, “The best treatment of thermodynamics
I have seen.” But, with this identification, Callen represents the revised
view of physicists with regarding to “what thermodynamics is” by
leaving out the engineering heritage of thermodynamics, i.e.,
engineering thermodynamics, which originated with studying the
relation between heat and mechanical work. Instead, Callen focuses on
the determination of equilibrium state in the narrow sense of
equilibrium thermodynamics (exception is found in Callen’s Chap. 4, in
which obligatory treatment of maximum useful work is given; the case
can be made, however, that Callen’s treatment in [4] represents a
paragon of equilibrium thermodynamics, not engineering
thermodynamics ).

1.3.1 Nonequilibrium and Irreversibility

Whereas the concept of equilibrium is fundamental to the edifice of
thermodynamic theory, the theory derives its significance from its
applications to systems at equilibrium or near equilibrium as well as to
systems far from equilibrium [5] or at nonequilibrium states. In the
former cases, thermodynamic systems of interest are material objects
that either move toward equilibrium states as the natural end states
(which are Callen’s problem) or are prevented from reaching
equilibrium states due to externally imposed boundary conditions.
The more important applications are the latter cases: applications
to systems at nonequilibrium states (nonequilibrium thermodynamics,
NET). As will be discussed in Chap. 4 (see Footnote 1) and afterward,
there is no irreversibility if the world is at equilibrium. It is also
impossible to be away from equilibrium without any manifestation of
irreversibility. We study thermodynamics and NET because of the
irreversibility and interconnectedness of nature, and the driving forces
resulting from irreversibility manifested in the tendency toward
equilibrium.

1.4 Dimension and Unit of Temperature

A macroscopic description of a system may be expressed in terms of its
extensive state variables—mass and volume—and its intensive state
variables—pressure and temperature. An intensive state variable is the
macroscopic manifestation of microscopic processes of individual
atoms and molecules. Pressure is the macroscopic manifestation of
particle momentum transfer; its dimension is force per unit area (FL−2,
or ML−1T−2, with unit N/m2 or kN/m2). Temperature is the macroscopic
manifestation of particle kinetic energy (the average particle kinetic
energy). This might suggest that temperature could also be defined in
terms of energy. However, temperature is not only the “quantitative”
sum of single particles’ energy but also the “qualitative”
characterization of the collective distribution of particle energies.
Therefore, such a suggestion would have been mistaken.2
The general concept of temperature logically follows from the
postulate of thermal equilibrium, and following R. H. Fowler, the
postulate is known as the zeroth law of thermodynamics (Sect. 1.2).
Temperature , therefore, is strictly a macroscopic concept. The
thermodynamic concept of temperature, in fact, was rigorously
developed from the concept of Carnot’s temperature function by Carnot
and Kelvin. Unlike pressure, which is a derived dimension in terms of
the three fundamental dimensions of mechanics, the dimension of
temperature is a new fundamental dimension, which together with the
three fundamental dimensions of mechanics defines the four
fundamental dimensions of thermodynamics. Consequently, as we shall
see in the following chapters, heat and thermal energy (which is a
function of temperature )—though quantitatively equivalent to––are
qualitatively different from work and mechanical energy (both of which
are independent of temperature), respectively.

1.4.1 Universal Constants: Dimensionless

Conversion Factors and Dimensional Universal
Constants
At this point, it is useful to point out that the formulation of physical
theories involves a number of universal constants. A partial list includes
gc (the constant in Newton’s second law of motion relating force to
mass and acceleration), G (gravitational constant), R (universal molar
gas constant), and k (Boltzmann constant), (Avogadro number), h
(Planck constant), and J (the constant relating heat to mechanical
energy). Note that the Boltzmann constant is
 and the Avogadro number is

. The universal gas constant R is

related to the Boltzmann constant k: j/kmol K.

Progress in physics has been accompanied by increasing precision
in the determination of these constants as well as the evolving
understanding of the theoretical nature of universal constants, which is
open to two different interpretations (see paragraphs below). The
choice made on each universal constant is, in some cases, viewed to be
a matter of whether a particular choice is capable of yielding useful
applications, such as dimensional analysis in engineering. However,
instead of suggesting possible arbitrariness in the choice, a choice that
yields useful practical applications reflects a correct decipher of Nature.
Some of the universal constants such as gc and J underwent a
transformation from erstwhile dimensional universal constants to
become dimensionless conversion factors: for instance, gc became
Newton’s conversion factor relating force to mass; J became Joule’s
constant relating thermal energy to mechanical energy. When this
happens, a new understanding of the constants emerged. For instance,
with an arbitrary set of units, the Newton second law is written

With the choice of newton, kg, meter, and second as the units of F,
m, x, and t, respectively,

and the Newton second law assumes the form

 By becoming unity, gc disappears from the physical formula.
Similarly, J disappears from the physical formula with the adoption of
the same mechanical energy unit of “joule” for the unit of heat and
thermal energy (see Sect. 3.3 in Chap. 3).
Although the quantity of heat is determined by the same measure of
that of mechanical energy in Chap. 3, heat (more on that in Sect. 5.​6) as
a physical concept remains distinctive from mechanical energy. Its full
characterization requires a new variable, temperature . Had the
Boltzmann constant undergone the same transformation of gc and J ,
temperature too would have assumed the unit of energy (see Footnote
2) and the distinction in the characterization of heat and thermal
energy versus work and mechanical energy would have disappeared
completely––quantitatively as well as qualitatively. This emphatically is
not the case, as we shall discuss in detail in Chaps. 4–8. The Boltzmann
constant and the universal gas constant are considered to be
dimensional universal constants. Thus, temperature is a new
fundamental dimension, Θ[K], which is added to the MKS system of
length L [m], mass M [kg], and time T [s] to form the SI system.
To recapitulate: We can identify universal constants into two
groups: (1) dimensionless conversion factors (gc and J ), and (2)
dimensional universal constants (k and R). The fundamental dimension
set for the science of motion and heat is the set of length L, mass M, time
T, and temperature Θ (the corresponding SI units are meter, kg, s, K).
The complete SI system also includes the units of ampere and candela.
The history of temperature both in terms of the formation of the
concept (see Sects. 4.​3 and 4.​4) and in terms of the evolution of its
measurement and the standardization of temperature scales (based on
the proposal by W. F. Giauque [6]:18,347]) is a rich one. The use of gas
thermometer (see Sect. 1.5) and the formulation of the second law (see
Chaps. 4 and 5) played crucial roles in establishing our current state of
the art.

1.5 Thermal Equation of State for Ideal Gases

The temperature scales in use before 1954 required for their
specification two fixed points, the ice point and the steam point.
Hundreds of attempts were made to measure temperature t with high
precision without much success. In 1939, W. F. Giauque proposed the
use of a single fixed point, the triple point of water, set arbitrarily at
273.16 K (corresponding to the ice point of 273.15 K), as the
thermometric reference point, i.e., temperature is in terms of

where X is a thermodynamic property. At the 10th Conference on

Weights and Measures in Paris during the summer of 1954, the Giauque
proposal was passed.
Consider the property of ideal gases as the possible choice of
thermometric property X. This determination is possible as a result of
the way in which the products pv of gases depend on p. Zemansky
([6]:14, 111–116]) wrote

The remarkable property of gases that makes them so valuable

in thermometry is displayed in Fig. 6.2 [reproduced here as
Fig. 1.2] where the product of pv is plotted against p for four
different gases, all at the temperature of boiling sulfur in the top
graph, all at the temperature of boiling water in the one beneath,
all at the triple point of water in the next lower graph, and all at
the temperature of solid CO2 in the lowest. In each case it is seen
that, as the pressure approaches zero, the product of pv
approaches the same value for all [four] gases at the same
temperature .
 Fig. 1.2 The fundamental property of gases is that the product of pv in the
limit of p approaching zero is independent of the nature of the gas and
depends only on temperature
That is, the pv readings of the gas thermometer at a given
temperature , but filled with different thermometric gases in the limit
of very low pressure, , are found to be independent of the nature
of the specific gases

or
(1)
where the constant depends only on temperature independent
of the nature of specific gases. If the choice of to be proportional to A
is made, then one finds, for a thermometric substance of low-pressure
ideal gas, the reading of temperature to be in terms of

(2a)

(2b)

In a similar manner, a choice can be made by convention that

, i.e.,

or,
(3)
Correspondingly,
(4)
where N is the mole number, v is the molar specific volume, .

Note that , where m is mass of an ideal gas and M is its

molecular weight. Let Ri (≡ R/Mi) be the gas constant for a specific gas,
Eq. (4) becomes

(5)

We shall see later (Sects. 4.​3 and 4.​5) that it is possible to define the
same scale of temperature T by the general second law consideration.
The advantage of that approach will be that the definition of the
temperature is independent of not only the nature of specific gases but
also the specific nature of the gas substance.
Because of the simple form of the equation of state of ideal gases,
Eqs. (3)–(5), ideal gases will be broadly used in the following both as
working fluids in engineering analyses and in thought experiments for
theoretical demonstration/inference.

1.6 Mixtures of Ideal Gases

When two or more ideal gases are mixed, the behavior of a molecule
normally is not influenced by the presence of other similar or dissimilar
molecules and, therefore, a (non-reacting) mixture of ideal gases also
behaves as an ideal gas. Air, a mixture of oxygen, nitrogen, and a trace of
other gases, for example, is conveniently treated as an ideal gas. The
prediction of the p-V-T of the gaseous mixture is based on two models:
Dalton’s law and Amagat’s law.
Consider the following definitions. The composition of a mixture is
specified by the number of moles of each of its components, Ni, or by
the mass of each component, mi. Let the mixture be composed of r
components and the mole number N and mass m of the mixture be the
sum of the respective values of their individual components
 Note again . Introducing mole fraction xi and mass
fraction yi

the apparent molecular weight of the mixture is

(6)

where Mi is the molecular weight of ith component. The apparent

specific gas constant of the mixture is then .
The p-V-T behavior of a mixture of ideal gases (which [the mixture]
also behaves as an ideal gas) is based on Dalton’s law

Dalton’s law of additive pressures: The pressure of an ideal gas

mixture is equal to the sum of the pressures [known as partial
pressures, ] each gas would exert if it existed alone at the
mixture temperature and volume.

(7)

The p-V-T behavior of a mixture of ideal gases can also be based on

Amagat’s law

Amagat’s law of additive volumes: The volume of an ideal gas

mixture is equal to the sum of the volumes each gas would
occupy if it existed alone at the mixture temperature and
pressure (Fig. 1.3)
 Fig. 1.3 Amagat’s law and Dalton’s law
Since both the mixture and each of its component obey the ideal gas
equation of state

where pi is the partial pressure of the ith component. It follows

(8)

1.7 Work
If a system undergoes a displacement or a volume change under the
action of a force, the amount of work is equal to the product of the force
and the component of the displacement parallel to the force. For
instance, we consider a gas enclosed in a cylinder having a movable
piston of area S (see Fig. 1.4). If p is the pressure of the body against the
walls and the piston of the cylinder, then pS is the force exerted by the
body on the piston, which, as a result of the force, is moved from the
solid-line position to the dotted-line position corresponding to an
infinitesimal distance dz (dz denotes, in the general case, the movement
of a point on a surface element dS). An infinitesimal amount of work

Fig. 1.4 Piston moves upward by dz

is performed by the system. But Sdz is equal to the increase, dV, in the
volume of the system. Thus, we may write:

(9)

where dn is the unit vector normal to dS. Equation (9) is known as the
“quasi-static work” ([4]: p.19).
 For a finite transformation, the work done by the system is obtained
by integrating δW

where the integral is taken over the whole process from the initial state
‘1’ to the final state ‘2’.
The above example of work, the work done by the system as a whole
on its “surroundings” (or the corresponding work on the system by its
surroundings), is an example of external work . Implicit in Fig. 1.4, a
work reservoir is assumed and the piston is connected through a piston
rod and additional transmission means to the work reservoir. A system
external work is made up of, in the case of expansion external work ,
(1) expansion work against a surrounding thermal-and-pressure
reservoir and (2) useful work which is transmitted and stored in a work
reservoir. Opposite kind of useful work exchange, work extracted from a
work reservoir by the system, is also possible.
Examples of useful work exchange between a system and a
mechanical work reservoir are the rising or lowering of a suspended
weight; the winding or unwinding of a spring; the input or the output of
power of a flywheel. (In the case of electrical work, the charging or
discharging of a battery is an example.)

1.8 Calculation of for “Quasi-static

Processes”
Work (as well as heat in Chaps. 2 and 3) is not a state variable. Change
in a system’s state variable is determined by the initial and final states
of the change independent of the path. In contrast, work done by a
system depends not only on the initial state and the final states but also
on the intermediate states, i.e., on the path connecting the initial state
and the final states.
A simple example of work process is the so-called “quasi-static
process”, defined as a process that the path of which can be determined.
There are, however, two different ways of determining the path: One
way is, as shown in the figure (Fig. 1.5), the result of balancing forces
acting on a moving piston.

Fig. 1.5 An example of quasi-static process: it can be an expansion process if

(= pA piston) is slightly greater than with piston moving right, or a compression

process in the opposite case. Note that the figure implies the existence of a
mechanical arrangement for maintaining the required ––including the existence

of a work reservoir (see discussion in Sect. 1.9)

Another way of determining the path of a quasi-static process is
through the removal of closely spaced mechanical constraints as shown
in Fig. 1.6. We shall make a preliminary comment on the two processes
in Sect. 1.9 and more detailed discussion on them in Chap. 6. At this
point, it suffices to point out that they are fundamentally different kinds
of quasi-static processes and only the first one (Fig. 1.5) may be called
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
It was by reading the memoir on the peregrinations
and metamorphoses of the Sitaris that M. Perrier 2
made the acquaintance of Fabre’s work, of which he
was to become one of the most competent judges
and fervent and eloquent admirers. He referred to
this essay last year in his speech at the Sérignan
jubilee: [299]

It was in 1868. I had only just left the Higher Normal College,
and was a very youthful assistant naturalist at the Museum. I
can still see myself on the box-seat of an omnibus, crossing
the Place de la Concorde, with an open book on my knees; I
was reading the history of the Sitaris humeralis; I was
marvelling at its complicated metamorphoses and its ruses for
making its way into the nest of the solitary Bee. 3

These early essays were followed by many others,

also published in the Annales des sciences
naturelles, and were always received with the same
favour by all the notable scientists of the time.

While he was soaring toward the heights, and

making his way into unexplored regions, under the
astounded gaze of the most eminent authorities, who
saw themselves suddenly equalled and even
surpassed, his scientific genius loved also to look
downwards, to approach the beginners, to return, as
it were, to the starting-point, in order to hold out his
hand to them, and to trace out for them, through all
the stages of science, the path that he had opened
up for himself in the face of unheard-of difficulties.

He laboured to give them what he himself had felt the

lack of almost as much as the [300]help of masters: the
assistance of luminous, living books, capable of
teaching without fatigue and without tedium. His
class books are, in fact, models of their kind. In them
you will find no vague phraseology, but the simplest,
most precise, yet most natural language; no idle
excess of erudition, but the most perfect lucidity of
text as of diagram; no dryness, nothing
commonplace, but everywhere something
picturesque, original, and full of life, giving charm and
relief to all that is learned; and above all the constant
care never to isolate oneself from life, to keep in
touch with reality, by leading the youthful mind from
the spectacles which are most familiar to it to the
conceptions of science and from these to such of
their applications as are most usual and most
familiar.

To sum up, a rare talent for simply and clearly

expounding the most difficult theories in such a way
as to render them accessible to the youngest minds;
a wonderful power of capturing the attention from all
sides, of breaking down the water-tight partition
which too often exists between the mind and the
heart, between science and life, between theory and
practice: such are the essential characteristics which
earned Fabre the title of “the incomparable
populariser.” [301]

About 1866 and 1867, at the Normal College of Rodez, one of

our professors used to read to us and teach us to admire
certain little books by our as yet but little known compatriot,
J. H. Fabre, who was born at Saint-Léons, so he told us, and
had graduated from the Normal College of Avignon.

Such is the information recently given us by M.

François Fabié, as “a detail that might perhaps give
us pleasure, and which proves, in any case, that not
all the inhabitants of the Rouergue, as was
mistakenly said of late, were ignorant of the name,
origin, and talent of J. H. Fabre.” 4 [302]

We are, indeed, glad to think that if he was unduly

overlooked at a later time, he was at least known and
admired at an early period in Aveyron, and that as
early as 1866 his class books were especially
recommended to the attention of our young
schoolmasters at the Normal College of Rodez. They
could have had none better conceived or compiled.
Would to heaven our public schoolmasters had
always been as happily inspired or as well advised in
the choice of their textbooks! Would to heaven that,
instead of the dismal and misleading suggestions of
materialism and impiety, there were still a place in
the manuals of science, put in the hands of our
children, for reflections as sane and as lofty as these.
“By their practical side the sciences verge upon
agriculture, medicine, and industry; but they have
before all a moral advantage which is not shared in
the same degree by any other branch of human
knowledge: in that by giving us a knowledge of the
created universe they uplift the soul and nourish the
mind with noble and salutary thoughts.” 5 [303]

The study of the heavenly bodies in particular has

this inestimable result: “The things that we are told by
stellar astronomy overwhelm the understanding and
leave no room in our minds except for an impulse of
religious wonder at the author of these marvels, the
God whose unlimited power has peopled the
abysses of space with immeasurable heaps of
suns.” 6 But the divine work “perhaps appears more
marvellous still in the infinity of littleness than in the
infinity of magnitude: Magnus in magnis, it has been
said of God, maximus in minimis.” 7 This fine saying is
verified and more or less explicitly confirmed in a
thousand passages of the Souvenirs.

Fabre’s works of popularisation are very numerous:

they include no less than seventy to eighty volumes;
they embrace all the elements of the sciences
learned and taught by the author: arithmetic, algebra,
geometry, trigonometry, mechanics, physics,
chemistry, etc.; but their principal aim was to teach
the natural sciences, which furnish the material of
more than fifty volumes intended for the primary or
secondary degree of education. [304]

In his favourite domain of the natural sciences, as in

that of the other sciences, the practical tendency of
his teaching was by preference directed toward
agricultural applications, as is shown by the very
titles of many of his books: Eléments usuels des
sciences physiques et naturelles, avec applications à
l’hygiène et a l’agriculture—Le Livre des Champs—
Les Auxiliaires—Les Ravageurs—Arithmétique
agricole—Chimie agricole: indeed it was with the last
volume that he inaugurated his series of initiatory
textbooks. For the use of young girls and future
housewives, he published books on Le Ménage,
Hygiène and Economie domestique.

And all these little books are presented in a

picturesque and attractive form. The very titles have
nothing austere about them: Entretien de l’oncle Paul
avec ses neveux sur les choses d’agriculture—
Chimie de l’oncle Paul. There is also The Livre de
Maître Paul, the Histoire des Bêtes, the Leçons des
choses, the Livre d’Histoires and the Livre des
Champs. Under different titles the other volumes
evoke, like these, a sort of family atmosphere; they
display the same concrete style of narrative and the
same lifelike charm of dialogue. [305]

Evidently Fabre was not one of these whose “life was

strangled,” and his initiative stifled by the springes of
University methods and the programmes beloved of
the bureaucrats. On every side there was little but
disdain for animals and plants; and it was these
above all that he strove to popularise. When they are
studied, it is only to dissect them or reduce them to
abstract formulæ; but he considers them rather as
they are in themselves and in their relations with
human life. And while others speak of them as dead
objects or as indifferent objects, to indifferent
readers, Fabre speaks of them with sympathy and
feeling, with the tenderness and geniality of an uncle
speaking to his nephews, and he excels in
communicating to his hearers the sacred fire which
inspires him—the passionate love which he feels for
all natural things.

It was Fabre’s fine independence that made him a

pioneer. Certain of his manuals may no longer be
sufficiently up to date, but his methods and his
tendencies are precisely those that best respond to
the needs and aspirations of the present time. For a
wave of serious public opinion is revealing itself in
favour of a renewal of our public education. [306]

A time will come, let us hope, when the schools will

be less artificial and removed from real life, and will
no longer systematically ignore religion, the family,
the country and the vocation of the pupils. When that
time comes, the schoolmasters will turn again to the
classic Fabre handbooks, or at all events to books
modelled upon his, in order to teach the little peasant
boys to love their fields, their beasts, their agricultural
and pastoral labours; to teach them also sometimes
to lift their heads from the furrows in order to look up
at the returning stars.

Begun in 1862 by the publication of a book on

agricultural chemistry, Fabre’s work of popularisation
was continued until the appearance in 1879 of his
first volume of the Souvenirs. It forms as it were a
preface to the great entomological masterpiece.
Thanks to the deserved success of the series, rather
than to his wretched emoluments as professor, he
achieved the security and independence necessary
to the accomplishment of his mission. His class-
books were the ransom that set him free. They
enabled him to leave the town and escape into the
fields. They even enabled him to realise his dream of
a solitary corner of the earth [307]and a life of leisure
wholly dedicated to the patient and disinterested
study of his beloved insects.

From another point of view this long and patient effort

of scientific popularisation and intense literary
production was not without its results as regard his
later work. It enabled him to obtain a mastery of his
medium, to exercise his faculty of expression and his
mind, to vary and mature his observations, and finally
to realise that tour de force of writing, for specialists,
books that he who runs may read, and of performing
the miracle of arousing the enthusiasm of men of
letters for books that compel the admiration of
scientists, and attracting the attention of the
scientists to books that delight the man of letters.

The brilliance, colour, and vitality which enhance

without ever diminishing the high scientific value of
his Souvenirs are due, no doubt, to his native
qualities, to the limpid and harmonious Gallic genius
of which he affords so admirable a type; he owes
them also, as we have said, to all those tiny lives, so
vibrant with diligence, and so picturesque, whose
lights and shades and naïve emotions seem to have
found their way into his own heart, into his style; but
he owes them still [308]more to his young friends, the
primary school-children, to the pains which he took,
the ingenuity which he expended in bringing within
the grasp of the child’s mind, in impressing upon his
imagination and sensibility as well as his
understanding, the creatures and the doings of the
living world.

As we have recorded, it was only in 1879 that Fabre

inaugurated his great and immortal collection of
Souvenirs entomologiques.

From this same year dates the acquisition, so greatly

desired, of the open-air laboratory and his installation
in the cherished solitude of Sérignan, where he was
able to give free play to his entomological tastes, and
to continue to add to the Souvenirs.

Henri Fabre was then fifty-five years of age, and

apparently broken by fatigue and suffering. This did
not prevent him from undertaking and accomplishing
a task in which we know not which to admire the
most: the acuteness of observation or the vigour of
thought, the enthusiasm of the investigator or the
animation of the writer. Here is a wonderful example
to all those whom advancing age and life have
already cruelly bruised; to all those who might be
[309]tempted to give up or to flinch under the burden of

grief or disappointment, instead of listening to the

voice of their talents, the appeal of their friends, the
summons of God Himself to generous and devoted
action, and to the great harvest of souls and ideas.

For forty years [says Fabre] I have struggled with unshakable

courage against the sordid miseries of life; and the corner of
earth I have dreamed of has come at last.

The wish is realised. It is a little late, O my pretty insects! I

greatly fear that the peach is offered to me when I am
beginning to have no teeth wherewith to eat it. Yes, it is a little
late; the wide horizons of the outset have shrunk into a low
and stifling canopy, more and more straitened day by day.
Regretting nothing in the past, save those whom I have lost;
regretting nothing, not even my first youth; hoping nothing
either, I have reached the point at which, worn out by the
experience of things, we ask ourselves if life be worth the
living. 8

In the touching, desolate accents of these lives we

may, no doubt, hear the echoes of a whole lifetime of
toil and trial; but above all they express the cruel grief
which had just wrung the kindly, tender heart of the
great scientist. He was still suffering from [310]the blow
dealt him by the death of his beloved son Jules at the
moment of writing these lines on the first page of the
second volume of the Souvenirs, piously dedicated to
the memory of the lost child.

Happily he found in his “insuperable faith in the

Beyond” 9 a the courage to overcome his grief and in
his “love of scientific truth” the possibility of taking up
his life again and resuming his work.

Amid the ruins that surround me, one strip of wall remains
standing, immovable upon its solid base; my passion for
scientific youth. Is that enough, O my busy insects, to enable
me to add yet a few seemly pages to your history? Will my
strength not cheat my good intentions? Why, indeed, did I
forsake you so long? Friends have reproached me for it. Ah,
tell them, tell those friends, who are yours as well as mine, tell
them that it was not forgetfulness on my part, not weariness,
nor neglect: I thought of you; I was convinced that the
Cerceris’ cave had more fair secrets to reveal to us, that the
chase of the Sphex held fresh surprises in store. But time
failed me; I was alone, deserted, struggling against
misfortune. Before philosophising, one had to live. Tell them
that; and they will pardon me. 10

[311]

From the very beginning of his great entomological

work Fabre sought to free himself from another
reproach, which wounded him to the quick, because
it struck at his fidelity to his chosen study, and, what
is more, to scientific truth:

Others again have reproached me with my style, which has

not the solemnity, nay, better, the dryness of the schools.
They fear lest a page that is read without fatigue should not
always be the expression of the truth. Were I to take their
word for it, we are profound only on condition of being
obscure. Come here, one and all of you—you, the sting-
 bearers, and you, the wing-cased armour-clads—take up my
defence and bear witness in my favour. Tell of the intimate
terms on which I live with you, of the patience with which I
observe you, of the care with which I record your actions.
Your evidence is unanimous: yes, my pages, though they
bristle not with hollow formulæ nor learned smatterings, are
the exact narrative of facts observed, neither more nor less;
and whoso cares to question you in his turn will obtain the
same replies.

And then, my dear insects, if you cannot convince those good

people, because you do not carry the weight of tedium, I, in
my turn, will say to them:

“You rip up the animal and I study it alive; you turn it into an
object of horror and pity, whereas I cause it to be loved; you
labour in a torture-chamber and dissecting-room, I make my
observations [312]under the blue sky, to the song of the
Cicadas; 11 you subject cell and protoplasm to chemical tests, I
study instinct in its loftiest manifestations; you pry into death, I
pry into life.”

Our author’s strong personality is revealed no less in

the bulk of his work than in this declaration of
principles which might serve as a prologue to the
latter.

“With the originality of genius he is from the first

totally opposed to the point of view of those
naturalists who are fascinated by morphology and
anatomy.” 12 He believes that the characteristics of life
are to be found in life itself, and that if we wish truly
to know the insect, nothing will help us so much as
seeing it at work. “Mere common sense, the reader
will say, yet it is by no means common”; and it
usually happens that writers “forget to take
performance into their reckoning when they are
describing life.” 13

To study living entomology, that is, to study the insect

living its life and in the [313]highest manifestations of
its life, in its instincts and its habits, in its aptitudes
and its passions, in a word, in its psychic faculties; to
replace the dominant standpoint of morphology and
physiology by the standpoint of biology and
psychology; such is the essential programme of the
writer of the Souvenirs.

And he adheres to it all the more strictly the more he

sees it neglected by those about him, judging it to be
of still greater importance for one who is seeking to
know the insect, more advantageous to practice and
speculation, more essential to the open-air life and
the most abstruse inquiries of the human mind. By
curiously interrogating the life of the insects one may
render inestimable services to agriculture, as Pasteur
did in his investigation of sericulture; one may also
“furnish general psychology with data of inestimable
value,” and this in particular was what he proposed to
do. M. Fabre’s restless mind is for ever haunted by
the most abstruse problems, which, indicated here
and there, enable us to understand the motives that
urge him on. With reference to these the insect is no
longer an end: it becomes a means. Above all, M.
Fabre wishes to define instinct; to establish the line
of demarcation [314]which divides it from intelligence,
and to demonstrate whether human reason is an
irreducible faculty or whether it is only a degree
higher on a scale whose base descends into the
depths of animality. More generally he propounds the
question of the identity or the difference between the
animal mind and the human. He also seeks to
examine the problem of evolution; finally, to discover
whether geometry rules over all things, and whether
it tells us of a Universal Geometer, or whether “the
strictly beautiful, the domain of reason, that is, order,
is the inevitable result of a blind mechanism.” 14

And to tell the whole story in a few words, the

essential object, the general impulse of this curious
and powerful mind, which refuses to divide science
from philosophy, is to consider the insect, how it
lives; to note its actions and its movements; to reach
its inner from its outer life; its inward impulse from its
external action; and then to climb upwards from the
insect to man and from man to God.

Fabre never attempts to solve the problems which he

propounds a priori. Before thinking as a philosopher
he observes as a scientist. His method is strictly
experimental. [315]“To observe the crude fact, to record
it, then to ask what conclusion may be based upon
this solid foundation, such is M. Fabre’s only rule;
and if we oppose him with arguments he demands
observations.” 15

“See first; you can argue afterwards.” “The precise

facts are alone worthy of science. They cast
premature theories into oblivion.”

He always makes direct for the facts as Nature

presents them. The books fail him or are not to his
liking. Most of them dissect the insect; he wants it
alive and acting. The best contain but the shadow of
life; he prefers life itself. If he happens to quote them,
it is usually to deplore their deficiencies or to correct
their errors, or perhaps to do homage to a precursor
or a rival, but not to borrow from them the history of
an insect.

This history he wishes to take from life, and he

refuses to write except according to Nature and the
data provided by the living subject. His narratives are
always the result of strictly conscientious and
objective inquiries: he records nothing that he has
not seen, and if he has sometimes heightened his
pictures by somewhat vivid hues, he has [316]only
given his style the relief and the colour of his subject.
The danger of such scientific records when they are
written by a man of letters and a poet like Fabre into
the bargain is that there is a danger of their being
written with more art than exactitude. And it is
apparently this that causes so many scientists to
distrust science that also claims to be literature.
Fabre was not always immune from this species of
discredit which the writer may so easily cast upon the
scientist. But this unjust accusation was long ago
withdrawn, and to-day all are agreed as to the
absolute truthfulness of his portraits and his records.
He has talent and imagination, it is true, but he has
applied his talent to the sincere investigation of the
facts, and his imagination only to achieve the more
complete and faithful expression of the reality. A
great thinker once uttered this profound saying:
“Things are perceived in their truth only when they
are perceived in their poetry.” This saying might
serve as a motto for the whole of Fabre’s
entomological work.

To collect the data which he requires for the

foundation of his philosophical structures, Fabre is
not content with observing the insect as it lives and
labours when left to [317]itself, writing down, so to
speak, at its dictation the data which it deigns to give
him as it would give them to any one who possessed
the same patience and the same gift for observation.
After these first overtures, he seeks more confidential
information; to obtain this he inverts the parts played
by observer and insect; from being passive he
becomes active; he provokes and interrogates, and
by different experiments, often of wonderful ingenuity,
he enables and even compels the insect to confide to
him what it would never have divulged in the normal
course of its life and occupations. Fabre is the first to
think of introducing this kind of artificial observation,
which he calls experiment, into the study of the
animal “soul.”

To practise it more readily, he needs the insect close

within his reach; more than that, he needs it under
his hand, at his discretion, so to say. Neither the
great museum of the fields nor the place of
observation where the insects “roam at will amid the
thyme and lavender” quite answers the requirements
of this part of his programme. So at various points of
the harmas all those appliances which we have
already described were set up, “rustic achievements,
clumsy combinations of trivial things.” In addition to
these appliances [318]in the open air, there are those
inside the house: some are installed in the study, so
that the experimenter “can see his insects working on
the very table upon which he is writing their
history”; 16 others are arranged in a separate room
known as the “animal laboratory.”

It is a great, silent, isolated room, brilliantly lighted by two

windows facing south, upon the garden, one of which at least
is always open that the insects may come and go at liberty.…
The middle of the room is entirely occupied by a great table of
walnut-wood, on which are arranged bottles, test-tubes, and
old sardine boxes, which Fabre employs in order to watch the
evolution of a thousand nameless or doubtful eggs, to
observe the labours of their larvæ, the creation and hatching
of cocoons, and the little miracles of metamorphosis, after a
germination more wonderful than that of the acorn which
makes the oak.

Covers of metallic gauze resting on earthenware saucers full

of sand, a few carboys and flower-pots or sweetmeat jars
closed with a square of glass; these serve for observation or
experimental cages in which the progress and the actions of
these tiny, living machines can be investigated. 17

Fabre reveals a consummate skill in this difficult and

delicate art of experimentation [319]and inducing the
insect to speak. The smallest incident, insignificant to
a mind less alert than his, suggests further questions
or gives rise to sudden intuitions and preconceived
ideas which are immediately subjected to the test of
experiment. But it is not enough to question the
insect; one must understand its replies; it is not
enough to collect or even to provoke data. One must
know how to interpret them.
 And here truly we come to the prodigy; for his sympathy for
animals gives M. Fabre a sort of special sense, which enables
him to grasp the meaning of its actions, as though there were
between it and himself some actual means of communication,
something in the nature of a language. 18

But there is something even more remarkable than

this penetration and certainty of analysis; it is the
prudence with which he goes forward step by step,
without leaving anything vague or doubtful; the
reserve with which he pronounces upon all that goes
beyond the obvious meaning of the facts; the
frankness and modesty with which he admits that he
hesitates or does not know. It often happens that this
scrupulous spirit leads [320]to doubt. “The more I
observe and experiment, the more I feel rising before
me, in the cloudy blackness of the possible, a vast
note of interrogation.” We might even find that on
certain occasions the fear of going astray has caused
him to limit to excess the range of his interpretation.
But this is done only to give greater weight to his
assertions, wherever they are expressed firmly and
with quiet assurance. In short, there is reason to
subscribe to the flattering judgment of his first
biographer, who sees in the Souvenirs not only the
most wonderful entomological repertory, but a true
“essay upon method,” which should be read by every
naturalist, and the most interesting, instructive,
familiar, and delightful course of training that has
ever been known. 19

The most interesting, instructive, and delightful

course of training: his books are this, not only in
virtue of the writer’s method and point of view, but in
virtue of his language. For the living scenes of the
Souvenirs, as well as the interpretations interspersed
between them, are expressed in words so simple and
so well chosen that [321]they are realised without effort
and in the most striking relief in the reader’s mind
and imagination.

Fabre hates to see science make use of pedantic

and pseudo-scholastic terminology. Apart from the
fact that it may repel the reader, all this idle
apparatus of obscurity serves only too often to mask
error or vagueness of thought.

By seasoning the matter with indigestible terms, useful for

dissimulating vagueness of thought, one might represent the
Cione as a superb example of the change brought about by
the centuries in the habits of an insect. It would be very
scientific, but would it be very clear? I doubt it. When my eyes
fall upon a page bristling with barbarous locutions,
supposedly scientific, I say to myself: “Take care! The author
does not properly understand what he is saying, or he would
have found, in the vocabulary which so many clever minds