that which was previously absorbed) at the conclusion it reaches its primitive value, S, in virtue of Carnot's fundamental axiom.]
[Note of Nov. 5, 1881. With Prof. James Thomson's correction of operation (3), the words in virtue of "Carnot's Fundamental Axiom" must be replaced by "the condition fulfilled by operation (3)," in the description of the results of operation (4).]
16. At the conclusion of this cycle of operations[1] the total thermal agency has been the letting down of H units of heat from the body A, at the temperature S, to B, at the lower temperature T; and the aggregate of the mechanical effect has been a certain amount of work produced, since during the ascent of the piston in the first and second operations, the temperature of the water and vapor, and therefore the pressure of the vapor on the piston, was on the whole higher than during the descent, in the third and fourth operations. It remains for us actually to evaluate this aggregate amount of work performed; and for this purpose the follow-
- ↑ In Carnot's work some perplexity is introduced with reference to the temperature of the water, which, in the operations he describes, is not brought back exactly to what it was at the commencement; but the difficulty which arises is explained by the author. No such difficulty occurs with reference to the cycle of operation described in the text, for which I am indebted to Mons. Clapeyron.
