The laws of thermodynamics are formulated
- Date
- 1850–1865
- Category
- Science, technology & invention
- Region
- Europe (Germany / Britain)
- Era
- Modern
- Significance
Across the mid-nineteenth century the science of thermodynamics took systematic shape.
Building on James Prescott Joule's experiments equating heat and mechanical work and on Sadi Carnot's earlier analysis of heat engines, Rudolf Clausius in 1850 gave the first clear statement of the first law (conservation of energy in thermal processes) and of the principle that heat does not spontaneously flow from a colder to a hotter body. In 1851 William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) independently restated these ideas, coined the term 'thermo-dynamics', and helped establish an absolute temperature scale. In 1865 Clausius introduced the concept of entropy, encapsulating the second law in the proposition that the entropy of an isolated system tends to increase. Together these laws defined the limits of energy conversion, explained why perpetual-motion machines are impossible, and gave engineers a rigorous basis for improving steam engines and other machinery. Thermodynamics became a cornerstone of physics and chemistry, later underpinning statistical mechanics and shaping cosmological ideas about the direction of time.
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Empires active in 1850–1865
- Russian Empire1721 CE – 1917 CE
- French Colonial Empire (Second)1830 CE – 1962 CE
- British Empire1583 CE – 1997 CE
- Qing Dynasty1636 CE – 1912 CE
- Spanish Empire1492 CE – 1976 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
Related science, technology & invention events
- Third Plague Pandemic begins in Yunnan1855 (origin in Yunnan); global spread from 1894
- Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species24 November 1859
- Maxwell formulates the theory of electromagnetism1865–1873
- Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction29 August 1831
- Opening of the Suez Canal17 November 1869
- Opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway27 September 1825
Further reading
The wider story
A Little History of Science
Warm, jargon-free tour of discovery from Babylonian stargazers to the genome.
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