Page:Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat.djvu/176

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
152
THOMSON ON CARNOT'S

the line AA1, or the line A3A2 or any line of intermediate magnitude.

The expression (2) is rigorously correct for any interval S - T, if the mean value of for that interval be employed as the coefficient of H(S - T).

Carnot's Theory of the Air-engine.

22. In the ideal air-engine imagined by Carnot four operations performed upon a mass of air or gas enclosed in a closed vessel of variable volume constitute a complete cycle, at the end of which the medium is left in its primitive physical condition; the construction being the same as that which was described above for the steam-engine, a body A, permanently retained at the temperature S, and B at the temperature T an impermeable stand K and a cylinder and piston, which in this case contains a mass of air at the temperature S, instead of water in the liquid state, at the beginning and end of a cycle of operations. The four successive operations are conducted in the following manner:

(1) The cylinder is laid on the body A, so that the air in it is kept at the temperature S; and the piston is allowed to rise, performing work.