Article ID: CBB895444434

On the Stories Told by Indicator Diagrams and Carnot Diagrams (2018)

unapi

The “Carnot Diagram,” so prevalent in conveying the Second Law of Thermodynamics, had a prehistory in the indicator diagrams used by some practical engineers to diagnose the ailments of steam engines and to improve their operation. These diagnoses can be understood in narrative terms, analogous to the case reports of physicians. A different narrative understanding can be extended to the series of theoretical works on the maximum power obtainable from heat engines by mathematical engineers and physicists: Sadi Carnot, Benoît Paul Émile Clapeyron, Rudolf Clausius, and William Thomson (Lord Kelvin). The narrative interpretation is important for understanding how versions of the Carnot Diagram functioned in their analytic reasoning and in their perspective on the directionality of natural processes, such as heat passing on its own from hot to cold and never the reverse.

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Article Greg Priest; Silvia De Toffoli; Paula Findlen (2018) Tools of Reason: The Practice of Scientific Diagramming from Antiquity to the Present. Endeavour: Review of the Progress of Science (pp. 49-59). unapi

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Authors & Contributors
Pisano, Raffaele
Kikuchi, Yoshiyuki
Ito, Kenji
Furukawa, Yasu
Pellegrino, Emilio Marco
Hunter, John
Journals
International Journal for the History of Engineering and Technology
The Chemical Educator
Sciences et Techniques en Perspective
Revue des Questions Scientifiques
Llull: Revista de la Sociedad Española de Historia de las Ciencias y de las Técnicas
科学史研究 Kagakusi Kenkyu (History of Science)
Publishers
Pavia University Press
The MIT Press
Springer
Presses Universitaires de France
International Pub. Institute
Concepts
Thermodynamics
Physics
Steam engines; steam turbines
Engines
Mechanics
Entropy
People
Carnot, Nicolas Léonard Sadi
Clausius, Rudolf Julius Emmanuel
Clapeyron, Benoît Paul Émil
Boltzmann, Ludwig
Mayer, Julius Robert von
Verson, Eurico
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
18th century
20th century
Places
England
Europe
Yorkshire (England)
United States
Netherlands
Russia
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