THOMSON, WILLIAM (LORD KELVIN) and J.P. JOULE. - THE JOULE-THOMSON EFFECT.

On the Thermal Effects of Fluids in Motion. Part I-II (2 Papers).

London, Richard taylor and William Francis, 1853-54. 4to. No wrappers as extracted from "Philosophical Transactions" 1853, Vol. 143 and 1854, Vol. 144. With titlepages to vol. 143 a. 144. The papers: pp. 357-365 a. pp. 321-364, textillustrations. The first titlepage bears the name of P.G. Tait.

First printing of these importent papers in which the authors found the so-called Joule-Thomson effect which should be the founding technology in refrigeration. They showed that a gas expanding into vacuum without addition of external work undergo a change in temperature, in spite of the theoretical speculations. The temperature change occurs due to the internal work required to overcome the attractive forces between molecules.

"The only substantial contribution to thermodnamics to which the joint names of Joule and Thomson, are attached belongs to an idea conceived by Thomson, who saw the possibility of analyzing the deviations of gas properties from the ideal behavior. In particular, a non-ideal gas, made to expand slowly through a porous plug (so as to approximate a specified mathematical condition—constant enthalpy), would in general undergo a cooling (essentially a transformation of atomic motion into work spent against the interatomic attractions). For the delicate test of this effect Thomson required Joule’s unsurpassed skill (1852). But the application of the Joule- Thomson effect to the technology of refrigeration belongs to a later stage in the development of thermodynamics."(DSB).

Peter Guthrie Tait (1831 - 1901) was a Scottish mathematical physicist, best known for the seminal energy physics textbook Treatise on Natural Philosophy, which he co-wrote with Kelvin, and his early investigations into knot theory, which contributed to the eventual formation of topology as a mathematical discipline. His name is known in graph theory mainly for Tait's conjecture. (His name on the first titlepage).

Parkinson "Breakthroughs" 1852 C.

Order-nr.: 48811