S. carnot's Cycle and A. Volta's Pile

Raffele PISANO
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Dept. of Physical Sciences, Univ. "Federico II", Napoli


In this article I investigate on the origin of the idea of cycle in S. Carnot's Theory according to hypothesis about analogy to the electric circuit of Volta ’s Pile.

Abstract

In this article I investigate on the origin of the idea of cycle in S. Carnot's Theory according to hypothesis about analogy to the electric circuit of Volta ’s Pile. I perform, at first, a historical analysis (also of fundaments) of the Réflexions sur la Puissance Motrice du feu (interpreted by means of non-classical logic) to show the steps of the book in which S. Carnot makes reference to Volta ’s Pile. Then I continue with a comparison, (still from the point of view of their fundaments) between Sadi Carnot’s theory of the thermodynamics and the electricity one.

Without having the ambitious pretension to be exhaustive, I will try an analogy between S. Carnot’s cycle and the electric current cyclical path I in Volta’s Pile, which current I (among two potential) corresponds to the flow of the caloric one between the two thermostats in S. Carnot’s heat machine. In more, I will introduce some cases in which, as in the comparison between the Volta ’s Pile and S. Carnot’s thermodynamics is worth an analogy between electric phenomenons and heat motive power (as Mach’s work). Particularly I will compare this analogy to Schmid and Fuchs works that, which – in the end of the years' 80-, have tried to build a general analogy between electricity and thermodynamics.


Info

Pisano R.: s. Carnot's Cycle and A. Volta's Pile in Garuccio (ed.): Proceedings of XXXIII Workshop in History and Physics and Astronomy, Bari, 2003, pp. 327-348