CLAUSIUS, R. (RUDOLF) - FOUNDING MODERN TECHNICAL THERMODYNAMICS.

Ueber die Anwendung der mechanischen Wärmetheorie auf die Dampfmaschine.

Leipzig, Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1856. Conemp. hcalf. 5 raised bands, gilt spine and gilt lettering to spine. A few scratches to spine. Small stamp on verso of first -and general- titlepage and small stamps to verso of plates. In: "Annalen der Physik und Chemie. Hrsg. von J.C. Poggendorff", Vierte Reihe Bd. 7, (=Poggendorff Bd. 97). (2),X,644 pp. a. 5 folded engraved plates. (Entire volume offered). Internally clean and fine. Clausius paper (in 2 parts): pp. 441-476 a. pp. 513-558. Clean and fine.

First appearance of this groundbreaking paper in which Clausius applied the second law of thermodynamics to the working of the steem-engine and stated, what he called the "second fundamental theorem in the mechanical theory of heat", the concept of "equivalent-value", which is the precursory formulation of the concept of "entropy". He showed especially that the heat of the steem could be negative as well as positive, thereby laying the foundation of modern technological thermodynamics.

The volume contains other notable papers:
THOMSON, W. (Lord Kelvin) & J.P. JOULE: "Ueber die Wärmewirkung bewegter Flüssigkeiten" (On the Thermal Effects of Fluids in Motion" (1853). Pp. 576-414.
This is the first German edition of a classic paper on thermodynamics, in which Thomson and Joule announced the so-called JOULE-THOMSON EFFECT (or Joule-Kelvin Effect), describing the increase or decrease in temperature of a real gas or liquid when allowed to expand freely through a valve or other throtting device while kept insulated so that heat is transferred to or from the fluid, and no external mechanical work is extracted from the fluid.

R. KOHLRAUSCH: "Ueber die elektrischen Vorgänge bei der Elektrolyse." Pp. 397-414 a. 559-575 (in 2 parts).

Frst printing of this importent paper, stating the fundamental facts of electrolyses and describing the theory of the "TANGENT GALVANOMETER", which Kohlrausch and Weber used to determine the electromagnetic value of the discharge current when a Leyden jar is discharged through the galvanometer. The ratio of the measured speed and the speed of light, led Kirchhoff to state in 1857 that an electric disturbance was propagated along a perfectly conducting wire at the velocity of light.
Wheeler Gift No. 3002.

Order-nr.: 43529