Appendix D - WIT Press · 2016. 1. 4. · Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot (1796–1832) The French military engineer and physicist Sadi Carnot entered the École Polytechnique in Paris

Appendix D

Universities of the Heat Engine

C.S. König1, M.W. Collins1 & I.S. Ruddock21College of Engineering, Design and Physical Sciences, Brunel University London, United Kingdom.2Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom.

The higher education institutions that are strongly associated with the development of the heat engine were hotspots for thermodynamic research and were the places of study and work of the eminent scientists and engineers surrounding Kelvin’s work and that have found special address in this book. In appreciation of their advancement of thermodynamic science, these institutions frequently featured on the reverse of banknotes as seen in Chapter 16. In this appen-dix section, we want to provide the reader with a visual impression of the universities related historically to the development of the heat engine as they were often architectural marvels of their time and indeed, the buildings still standing today, remain silent witnesses to extraordi-nary progress and enhancement of engineering science.

James Watt (1736–1819)

James Watt’s association with the University of Glasgow, or Glasgow College as it was then known, is not as a scholar per se but as a mathematical instrument maker. In this role, he became interested in the technology of steam engines. He realised that contemporary engine designs wasted a great deal of energy by repeatedly cooling and re-heating the cylinder. As a result Watt introduced a design enhancement, the separate condenser, which avoided this waste of energy and radically improved the power, efficiency and cost-effectiveness of steam engines. Watt was initially schooled at home by his mother before attending an elementary school and then a grammar school. After a couple of years assisting in his father’s carpentry shop, he spent a year as an apprentice instrument maker in London before returning to the west of Scotland and his first paid employment in the University. He had a room overlooking one of the quadrangles, Fig. 1 [1].

Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot (1796–1832)

The French military engineer and physicist Sadi Carnot entered the École Polytechnique in Paris as cadet at the age of 16. His classmates included Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis. Being prin-cipally an institution to train engineers for the military service, the school was renowned for its teaching of mathematics. The École Polytechnique was founded in 1794 and has a reputation of being the most selective and prestigious of the French Grandes Écoles. Whilst studying there Carnot befriended the scientist Nicolas Clément leading him to attend lectures on physics and chemistry. He subsequently became interested in understanding the limitation to improving the performance of steam engines. His investigations led to the publication of his Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire in 1824 [2,3].

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444 Kelvin, thermodynamics and the natural world

Benoît Paul Émile Clapeyron (1799–1864)

Clapeyron was born in Paris and like Carnot studied there at the École Polytechnique (see Fig. 2), but also at the École des Mines (see Fig. 3), before leaving for Saint Petersburg in 1820 to teach at the École des Travaux Publics where he taught both pure and applied mathematics [5]. In 1844, Clapeyron was appointed to a chair at the École des Ponts et Chaussées and in 1848, he

Figure 1: Glasgow College in the seventeenth century, looking eastwards from the High Street frontage. The University moved from this east end location to its present site in the west of the city in 1870. (Illustration from J. Slezer, Theatrum Scotiae, 1693. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.)

Figure 2: The École Polytechnique in Paris around 1900. (Photograph from [4].)


Universities of the Heat Engine 445

was elected to the Paris Academy of Sciences. He served the Academy on many committees, in particular serving on the committee which awarded the mechanics prize. He also served on a committee investigating the construction of the Suez Canal and on a committee which consid-ered how steam engines could be used in the navy [6].

Rudolf Clausius (1822–1888)

Clausius, who was born in Pomerania, Prussia, graduated from the University of Berlin (Humboldt University, see Fig. 4) in 1844. He was reading mathematics and physics with, among others, Pe-ter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet. There he also read history with Leopold von Ranke. In 1847, he obtained his doctorate from the University of Halle (see Fig. 5) on optical effects in the Earth’s atmosphere. Subsequently, he became a professor of physics at the Royal Artillery and Engineer-ing School in Berlin and held the position of ‘Privatdozent’ at the University of Berlin. In 1855, he became a professor at the ETH Zürich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, where he stayed until 1867. In that year he moved to Würzburg as a professor of physics, and 2 years later he was appointed to the same chair at Bonn, where he died on the 24 August 1888 [9–11].

Figure 3: (a) Main entrance and (b) the Hôtel de Vendôme, central building of École des Mines. (Photograph and illustration from [7] and [8], respectively.)



Figure 4: The Royal Library of the Humboldt University of Berlin, 1832. (Illustration from [12].)

Figure 5: Historic view of the Lion Building (Löwengebäude, 1832–1834) of the Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg. (Image from [13].)

Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839–1903)

Gibbs was born on 11 February 1839, in New Haven, CT. He graduated from Yale College (see Fig. 6) in 1858. Subsequently, he continued his studies at Yale, receiving his doctorate of philosophy in 1863 which was the first American doctorate to be conferred in engineering. He was them appointed as tutor in the college, where he taught Latin for 2 years and natural philosophy for a third year. In 1871, he was appointed as a professor of mathematical physics in Yale College and he served in that capacity for the rest of his life [16–18]. Yale's Sloane Physical Laboratory is depicted in Fig. 7.


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Figure 6: Yale University, the Old Brick Row at 1807. (Illustration from [14].)

Figure 7: Yale’s Sloane Physical Laboratory, as it stood between 1882 and 1931. Accord-ing to [15] Gibbs’s office was on the second floor, to the right of the tower in the picture. (Photograph from [15].)

References

[1] Dickinson, H.W., James Watt: Craftsman and Engineer, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1936.

[2] Carnot, S. & Thurston, R.H. (editor and translator), Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat, John Wiley & Sons: New York, 1890.



[3] Sadi Nicolas Léonard Carnot: http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Printonly/Carnot_Sadi.html

[4] L'ancienne Ecole Polytechnique: http://paris1900.lartnouveau.com/paris05/ecoles/ecole_polytechnique.htm

[5] Benoit Paul Émile Clapeyron: http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Printonly/Clapeyron.html

[6] Benoit Paul Émile Clapeyron: http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Clapeyron.html

[7] Cartes postales 97 de Paris 6e Arrondissement: http://www.communes.com/ile-de-france/paris/paris-6e-arrondissement_75006/cartes-postales-anciennes, 97.html

[8] Histoire de l'Ecole des mines: http://www.annales.org/archives/x/ecole.html [9] Cardwell, D.S.L, From Watt to Clausius: The Rise of Thermodynamics in the Early Industrial

Age, Heinemann: London, 1971.[10] Rudolf Julius Emmanuel Clausius: http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/

Printonly/Clausius.html[11] Rudolf Clausius: http://www.nndb.com/people/951/000100651/[12] Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Architectural history of the University Library: https://

bauten.hu-berlin.de/en/grimm-en/baugeschichte_der_universitaetsbibliothek-en[13] Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_

Luther_University_of_Halle-Wittenberg[14] Yale University: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yale_University[15] Josiah Willard Gibbs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Willard_Gibbs[16] L.P. Wheeler, Josiah Willard Gibbs, The History of a Great Mind, Ox Bow Press: Woodbridge,

CT, 1998 [1951].[17] J. Willard Gibbs, American Physical Society Sites: http://www.aps.org/programs/

outreach/history/historicsites/gibbs.cfm[18] Josiah Willard Gibbs: http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Gibbs.html


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Appendix D - WIT Press · 2016. 1. 4. · Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot (1796–1832) The French military engineer and physicist Sadi Carnot entered the École Polytechnique in Paris