Page:Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat.djvu/37

Rh change has been attempted in Carnot's figures, in any respect; as it would be far less satisfactory to read a paraphrased work, and the exact figures are now easily accessible to every one, and his computations may all be made, if desired, on the basis of modern data. Sir William Thomson has already performed this task in the paper appended.

Throughout the whole of this treatise, small as it is, we find distributed a singular number of these anticipations of modern thermodynamic principles. Studying the relation of heat-energy to work done, he concludes:

“La chute du calorique produit plus de puissance motrice dans les degrés inférieurs que dans les degrés supérieurs.”

We to-day admit that, since the one degree at a low temperature, and the corresponding quantity of heat, are larger fractions of the total temperature, and the total heat stored in the substance, than the one degree at a higher point on the scale of absolute temperature, this principle of Carnot has become obvious.

In the enunciation of the essential principles of efficiency of the heat-engine, we find the proofs of this same wonderful prescience. He asserts that, for best effect: “(1) The temperature of the working fluid must be raised to the highest degree