Heat Engines : Thermodynamics In Theory And Practice (Science Study Series, S27)

In this book professor Sandfort treats the development of a fundamental concept of science in terms of history, people, and machines around which our lives are organized. His history of the invention of the perfection of the steam engine and the early theoretical research of Carnot, Joule, Clausius, and Thomsons, etc., is an often amusing and always fascinating story, but the main purpose of Professor Sandfort's book is to give the reader at least an elementary understanding of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, the significance of temperature, and the principle of the reversible heat engine-the theoretical foundations upon which our technological age has grown.