Julius von Mayer, “Sur la transformation de la force vive en chaleur, et reciproquement”, in Comptes Rendus, 16 October, 1848, volume 27, number 16, pp 385-386 in the weekly issue of pp (373)-40. This is an extract from a larger bound volume. Good, fresh copy. $150
“The idea that heat and work are equivalent was also proposed by Julius Robert von Mayer in 1842 ...independently by James Prescott Joule in 1843... Similar work was carried out by Ludwig A. Colding in 1840-1843, Also in 1847, Joule made a well-attended presentation at the annual meeting of British Association for the Advancement of Science. Among those in attendance was William Thomson. Thomson was intrigued but initially skeptical. Over the next two years, Thomson became increasingly convinced of Joule's theory, finally admitting his conviction in print in 1851, simultaneously crediting von Mayer...”
“However, in 1848, von Mayer had first had sight of Joule's papers and wrote to the French Académie des Sciences to assert priority. His letter [this paper] was published in the Comptes Rendus and Joule was quick to react. Thomson's close relationship with Joule allowed him to become dragged into the controversy. The pair planned that Joule would admit von Mayer's priority for the idea of the mechanical equivalent but to claim that experimental verification rested with Joule. Thomson's associates, co-workers and relatives such as William John Macquorn Rankine, James Thomson, James Clerk Maxwell, and Peter Guthrie Tait joined to champion Joule's cause.”
“...in 1862, John Tyndall...gave a lecture at the Royal Institution entitled On Force in which he credited von Mayer with conceiving and measuring the mechanical equivalent of heat...Though Tyndall again pressed von Mayer's cause in Heat: A Mode of Motion (1863) with the publication of Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe's Edinburgh Review article Thermo-Dynamics in January 1864, Joule's reputation was sealed while that of von Mayer entered a period of obscurity.”--long quote from Wiki.
Comments