Page:Scientific Papers of Josiah Willard Gibbs.djvu/440

VI.

ON AN ALLEGED EXCEPTION TO THE SECOND LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS.

[Science, vol. i, p. 160, Mar. 16, 1883.]

According to the received doctrine of radiation, heat is transmitted with the same intensity in all directions and at all points within any space which is void of ponderable matter and entirely surrounded by stationary bodies of the same temperature. We may apply this principle to the arrangement recently proposed by Prof. H. T. Eddy^[1] for transferring heat from a colder body ${\text{A}}$ to a warmer ${\text{B}}$ without expenditure of work.

In its simplest form the arrangement consists of parallel screens, which are placed between the bodies ${\text{A}}$ and ${\text{B}}$, and have the form of very thin disks with certain apertures, and the property of totally reflecting heat. These disks, or screens, are supposed to be fixed on a common axis, and to revolve with a constant velocity. For the purposes of theoretical discussion, we may allow this velocity to be kept up without expenditure of work, since we may suppose the experiment to be made in vacuo. If the dimensions and velocity of the apparatus are such that the screens receive a considerable change of position during the time in which radiant heat traverses the distances between them, the apertures in the screens may be so placed that radiations can pass from ${\text{A}}$ to ${\text{B}}$, but not from ${\text{B}}$ to ${\text{A}}$. It is inferred that it is possible, by such means, to make heat pass from a colder to a warmer body without compensation.

In order to judge of the validity of this inference, let us suppose thermal equilibrium to subsist initially in the system, and inquire whether the motion of the screens will have any tendency to disturb that equilibrium. We suppose, then, that the screens, the bodies ${\text{A}}$ and ${\text{B}}$, and the walls enclosing the space in which the experiment is made, have all the same temperature, and that the spaces between and around the screens and the bodies ${\text{A}}$ and ${\text{B}}$ are filled with the radiations which belong to that temperature, according to the principle cited above. Under such circumstances, it is evident that the presence of the screens, whether at rest or in motion, will not have

1. Journ. Frankl. Inst., March, 1883.