IX.—On the Dynamical Theory of Heat. Part V. Thermo-electric Currents

Abstract

Preliminary §§ 97–101. Fundamental Principles of General Thermo-dynamics recapitulated.97. Mechanical action may be derived from heat, and heat may be generated by mechanical action, by means of forces either acting between contiguous parts of bodies, or due to electric excitation; but in no other way known, or even conceivable, in the present state of science. Hence Thermo-dynamics falls naturally into two Divisions, of which the subjects are respectively, the relation of heat to the forces acting between contiguous parts of bodies, and the relation of heat to electrical agency. The investigations of the conditions under which thermodynamic effects are produced, in operations of any fluid or fluids, whether gaseous or liquid, or passing from one state to the other, or to or from the solid state, and the establishment of universal relations between the physical properties of all substances in these different states, which have been given in Parts I.-V. of the present series of papers, belong to that first great Division of Thermo-dynamics—to be completed (as is intended for future communications to the Royal Society) by the extension of similar researches to the thermo-elastic properties of solids.