Page:Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat.djvu/88

66 executed in an inverse sense and order. Let us imagine that, after the sixth period, that is to say the piston having arrived at the position ef, we cause it to return to the position ik, and that at the same time we keep the air in contact with the body A. The caloric furnished by this body during the sixth period would return to its source, that is, to the body A, and the conditions would then become precisely the same as they were at the end of the fifth period. If now we take away the body A, and if we cause the piston to move from efik [sic] to cd, the temperature of the air will diminish as many degrees as it increased during the fifth period, and will become that of the body B. We may evidently continue a series of operations the inverse of those already described. It is only necessary under the same circumstances to execute for each period a movement of dilatation instead of a movement of compression, and reciprocally.

The result of these first operations has been the production of a certain quantity of motive power and the removal of caloric from the body A to the body B. The result of the inverse operations is the consumption of the motive power produced and the return of the caloric from the body B to the body A; so that these two series of operations annul