on solids and liquids a very great strain in order to produce in them a reduction of volume comparable to that which they experience in cooling (cooling from 100° to zero, for example). Now the cooling requires a greater abstraction of caloric than would simple reduction of volume. If this reduction were produced by mechanical means, the heat set free would not then be able to make the temperature of the body vary as many degrees as the cooling makes it vary. It would, however, necessitate the employment of a force undoubtedly very considerable.
Since solid bodies are susceptible of little change of temperature through changes of volume, and since the condition of the most effective employment of heat for the development of motive power is precisely that all change of temperature should be due to a change of volume, solid bodies appear but ill fitted to realize this power.
The same remarks apply to liquids. The same reasons may be given for rejecting them.[1]
We are not speaking now of practical difficulties.
- ↑ The recent experiments of M. Oerstedt on the compressibility of water have shown that, for a pressure of five atmospheres, the temperature of this liquid exhibits no appreciable change. (See Annales de Ohimie et de Physique, Feb. 1823, p. 192.)
