Some Ideas of James Watt in Contemporary Energy Conversion Thermodynamics
- 1 Stuttgart, Germany
Abstract
James Watt contributed significantly to the development of the thermodynamics of energy conversion as a science. Several of his ideas are now integral part of thermodynamics, but Watt as their creator is not mentioned. This paper presents some of Watt’s concepts of energy conversion, including his thermodynamic analysis of the Newcomen steam engine that marks the beginning of thermal engineering. The analysis illuminated the causes of the enormously high heat losses in the installation and showed the ways for their reduction. This led him to a new conception of the steam engine with a separate condenser. Not less important was Watt’s determination of some physical properties of water and steam used as the working substance. In the experiments he observed the decrease of the latent heat of steam with increasing temperature and its disappearance at very high temperature led him to postulate the existence of a thermodynamic critical state of water. He introduced the work associated with volume change into thermodynamics and illustrated it graphically. Several of Watt’s numerous ideas deserve to be included into the history of the thermodynamics of energy conversion but they are rarely mentioned in the scientific literature. Arguably the most important is the First Law of Thermodynamics, which he introduced in his 1769 patent and related works in 1774 and 1778.
- Watt, J. (1818) The Articles Steam and Steam-Engines. John Murray, London.
- Farey, J. (1827) A Treatise on the Steam Engine: Historical, Practical, and Descriptive. David & Charles, London.
- Mitrovic, J. and Smyk, A. (2021) Voprosy istorii estestvoznaniia i tekhniki (Studies in the History of Science and Technology), 42, 397-442. (in Russian). https://doi.org/10.31857/S020596060016355-2
- Saslow, W.M. (2020) Entropy, 22, Article No. 77. https://doi.org/10.3390/e22010077
- Stuart, R. (1824) A Descriptive History of the Steam Engine. J. Knight and H. Lacey, London.
- Black, J. and Robison, J. (1803) Lectures on the Elements of Chemistry. Vol. 1, Mundell and Son, Philadelphia, 151-152.
- Cardwell, D.S.L. (1971) From Watt to Clausius: The Rise of Thermodynamics in the Early Industrial Age. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 161.
- Miller, D.P. (2004) History of Science, 42, 333-360. https://doi.org/10.1177/007327530404200304
- Capecchi, D. (2021). Epistemology and Natural Philosophy in the 18th Century: The Roots of Modern Physics. Chapter 5, Springer Nature, Cham, 473-549. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52852-2
- Watt, J., Muirhead, J.P., Murray, J. and Constable, T. (1846) Correspondence of the Late James Watt on his Discovery of the Theory of the Composition of Water. W. Blackwood & Sons, London.
- Siemens, C., (1853) Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 12, 571-590.
- Berche, B., Henkel, M. and Kenna, R. (2009) Journal of Physical Studies, 13, Article No. 3201, arXiv:0905.1886[physics.hist-ph]. https://doi.org/10.30970/jps.13.3001
- Watt, J. (1769) Method of Lessening the Consumption of Steam and Fuel in Fire Engines. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/File:James_Watt_Patent_1769_No_913.pdf
- Miller, D.P. (2006) History of Technology, 27, 43-76. https://doi.org/10.1080/01445340500290144
- Pacey, A.J. (1974) The British Journal for the History of Science, 7, 135-145. https://doi.org/10.1017/S000708740001311X
- Cardwell, D.S.L. (1967) The British Journal for the History of Science, 3, 209-224. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007087400002661
- Joule, J.P. (1850) Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 140, 61-82. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstl.1850.0004