Conceptual polymorphism of entropy into the history: extensions of the second law of thermodynamics towards statistical physics and chemistry during nineteenth–twentieth centuries (2021)
Pisano, Raffaele (Author)
Pellegrino, Emilio Marco (Author)
Anakkar, Abdelkader (Author)
Nagels, Maxime (Author)
Foundations of Chemistry
Volume: 23
Issue: 3
Pages: 337-378
After the birth of thermodynamics’ second principle—outlined in Carnot's Réflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu (1824)—several studies provided new arguments in the field. Mainly, they concerned the thermodynamics’ first principle—including energy conceptualisation—, the analytical aspects of the heat propagation, the statistical aspects of the mechanical theory of heat. In other words, the second half of nineteenth century was marked by an intense interdisciplinary research activity between physics and chemistry: new disciplines applied to the heat developed in the form of analytical, mechanical and statistical theories. Inside all these theories, entropy—the brand-new function that Clausius coined in his Mechanical theory of heat—started to play a central epistemic role. In the present paper, we analyse some steps of the historical process of conceptualisation of such function from 1850 to 1902. Particularly, we retrace the historical–foundational path that—starting from Clausius’ Second Law—lead Boltzmann and Gibbs to their distinguished formulations of statistical entropy. As usual, our research has been unrolled through the analyses of primary sources and by leaning on critical readings of the secondary literature. As for the methodological approach, text analysis of historical documents constituted our privileged modus operandi. This paper is the expression of a collaborative historical research program focused on the thermodynamic foundations of physics–chemistry relationship; early results have already been published by the same authors upon the concepts of reversibility––and––thermal equilibrium.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Book
Bartel, Hans-Georg;
Huebener, R. P.;
(2007)
Walther Nernst: Pioneer of Physics and of Chemistry
(/isis/citation/CBB000774127/)
Chapter
Francesco Ghelli;
(2003)
Dalla 'morte termica' al 'rumore bianco'. Lettartura e entropia tra termodinamica, teoria dell'informazione e moderna apocalisse
(/isis/citation/CBB096872924/)
Book
Gavroglu, Kostas;
(2014)
History of Artificial Cold: Scientific, Technological and Cultural Issues
(/isis/citation/CBB001500399/)
Chapter
Rowlinson, Sir John S.;
(2014)
James Dewar and the Road to the Liquefaction of Hydrogen
(/isis/citation/CBB001500405/)
Article
Bordoni, Stafano;
(2013)
Routes Towards an Abstract Thermodynamics in the Late Nineteenth Century
(/isis/citation/CBB001320791/)
Article
Berger, Jutta;
(1999)
Grenzgänge zwischen Physik und Chemie: Thermodynamik und chemische Kinetik - kein Happy-End im 19. Jahrhundert
(/isis/citation/CBB000111685/)
Book
Alexander Pechenkin;
(2018)
The History of Research on Chemical Periodic Processes
(/isis/citation/CBB757079672/)
Article
Photis Dais;
(2021)
Impact of Gibbs’ and Duhem’s approaches to thermodynamics on the development of chemical thermodynamics
(/isis/citation/CBB022163007/)
Book
Clarke, Bruce;
Henderson, Linda Dalrymple;
(2002)
From Energy to Information: Representation in Science and Technology, Art, and Literature
(/isis/citation/CBB000301723/)
Article
Montserrat, Jesús M.;
Navarrho, Luis;
(2000)
The atomistic view of heat in Lucretius
(/isis/citation/CBB000111299/)
Book
Lewis, Christopher J. T.;
(2007)
Heat and Thermodynamics: A Historical Perspective
(/isis/citation/CBB000700847/)
Article
Wisniak, Jaime;
(2000)
Johannes Jacobus Van Laar Unappreciated Scientist
(/isis/citation/CBB001252519/)
Article
William B. Jensen;
(2013)
George Downing Liveing and the Origins of Chemical Thermodynamics in Great Britain
(/isis/citation/CBB441773857/)
Article
Deltete, Robert J.;
(2012)
Planck, Ostwald, and the Second Law of Thermodynamics
(/isis/citation/CBB001232112/)
Book
Neswald, Elisabeth R.;
(2006)
Thermodynamik als kultureller Kampfplatz: Zur Faszinationsgeschichteder Entropie, 1850--1915
(/isis/citation/CBB000740241/)
Article
Wisniak, Jaime;
(2001)
Frederick Thomas Trouton: The Man, the Rule, and the Ratio
(/isis/citation/CBB001252524/)
Book
Badino, Massimiliano;
(2010)
Il professore e il suo demone: La lunga lotta di Max Planck contro la statistica (1896--1906)
(/isis/citation/CBB001252424/)
Article
Neswald, Elizabeth;
(2009)
Ansätze zu einer Kulturgeschichte der Entropie
(/isis/citation/CBB001023440/)
Chapter
Vermeer, Leonieke;
(2010)
Coping with Entropy: Utopian Reactions to the Second Law of the Thermodynamics (1860--1920)
(/isis/citation/CBB001021561/)
Chapter
Neswald, Elizabeth;
(2014)
Saving the World in the Age of Entropy: John Tyndall and the Second Law of Thermodynamics
(/isis/citation/CBB001202313/)
Be the first to comment!