Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire: And Other Papers on the Second Law of Thermodynamics

by Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot

The title essay, along with other papers in this volume, laid the foundation of modern thermodynamics. Highly readable, "Reflections" contains no arguments that depend on calculus, examining the relation between heat and work in terms of heat in steam engines, air-engines, and an internal combustion machine. Translation of 1890 edition.

Genres: Science, Physics, Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1979

About the author

Work of French physicist and engineer Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot on heat engines laid the foundation for the second law of thermodynamics.

People often describe this military scientist and mechanical engineer in the Army as the "father of thermodynamics."

Reviews

[Lloyd Earickson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some books, I wonder why I read.  After I read Einstein's Fridge , I went out and put Hydrodynamica and Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire on my reading list.  I thought it would be fascinating to see how our understanding of these concepts has evolved since those seminal works, and informative on their subjects as only original source material can be - after all, I've learnt more of history from reading contemporaneous manuscripts than I have from reading conventional history texts.  Alas, only the former proved true, and I do not know that I will pursue other materials of this type.

Don't get me wrong: Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire/Heat is well-written, and you'll doubtless learn something if you are not already well-versed in thermodynamics and heat engines.  It's also historically fascinating, offering context on the time and how it was perceived by its inhabitants, which is not necessarily the same as how historians now perceive it.  Indeed, I wonder what people two hundred years from now will think of us from today's scientific papers.  Probably that we sound very odd, if we keep writing openings like I discussed in my post about communicating clearly.

From a scientific sense, though, there are far better means by which to learn about thermodynamics and the theory of heat engines, ways that don't require you to verify what information is accurate and current, and what information may have changed in the intervening centuries.  Perhaps I was attempting to tick too many boxes with this read, going after history, science, philosophy (a little), and a bit of autobiography all at once, and ending up with something that is mediocre in all of them.  Again, it wasn't bad.  It was still interesting, and well written, and I don't regret reading it.  I'm just not certain that it was worth the time to read when I look at everything else on my extensive reading list.

My ultimate recommendation on this is therefore somewhat ambiguous.  You might find it quite interesting and valuable, and it would certainly make ideal research material for a piece inspired by that time period.  For me, though, I don't think that I'll be pursuing similar works in the future.  Even though I can't quite bring myself to take Principia Mathematica off of my reading list.

[Jorge Serra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Varia su complejidad a lo largo del libro, lo que puede ser algo que desanime a terminarlo, sin embargo sus conclusiones son demostradas por varios medios de forma que sean poco refutables teniendo en contexto el momento histórico en el que fue publicado.