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History of Mechanism and Machine Science 13 Charles Coulston Gillispie Raff aele Pisano Lazare and Sadi Carnot A Scientifi c and Filial Relationship Lazare and Sadi Carnot: A Scientific and Filial Relationship HISTORY OF MECHANISM AND MACHINE SCIENCE Volume13 SeriesEditor MARCOCECCARELLI AimsandScopeoftheSeries ThisbookseriesaimstoestablishawelldefinedforumforMonographsandProceedings ontheHistoryofMechanismandMachineScience(MMS).Theseriespublishesworks that give an overviewof the historical developments, from the earliest times up to and includingtherecentpast,ofMMSinallitstechnicalaspects. Thistechnicalapproachisanessentialcharacteristicoftheseries.Bydiscussingtechni- caldetailsandformulationsandevenreformulatingthoseintermsofmodernformalisms thepossibilityiscreatednotonlytotrackthehistoricaltechnicaldevelopmentsbutalso tousepast experiences intechnical teachingandresearchtoday. Inordertodoso,the emphasismustbeontechnicalaspectsratherthanapurelyhistoricalfocus,althoughthe latterhasitsplacetoo. Furthermore,theserieswillconsidertherepublicationofout-of-print olderworkswith Englishtranslationandcomments. Thebookseriesisintendedtocollecttechnicalviewsonhistoricaldevelopmentsofthe broadfieldofMMSinauniqueframethatcanbeseeninitstotalityasanEncyclopaedia of the History of MMS but with the additional purpose of archiving and teaching the HistoryofMMS.Therefore thebook seriesisintended not onlyforresearchers ofthe History of Engineering but also for professionals and students who are interested in obtainingaclearperspectiveofthepastfortheirfuturetechnicalworks.Thebookswill bewritteningeneralbyengineersbutnotonlyforengineers. Prospective authors and editors can contact the series editor, Professor M. Ceccarelli, aboutfuturepublicationswithintheseriesat: LARM:LaboratoryofRoboticsandMechatronics DiMSAT–UniversityofCassino ViaDiBiasio43,03043Cassino(Fr) Italy E-mail:[email protected] Forfurthervolumes: http://www.springer.com/series/7481 Charles Coulston Gillispie • Raffaele Pisano Lazare and Sadi Carnot A Scientific and Filial Relationship 123 CharlesCoulstonGillispie RaffaelePisano DepartmentofHistory “Cirphles” PrincetonUniversity,NewJersey ÉcoleNormaleSupérieureParis USA France ISSN1875-3442 ISSN1875-3426(electronic) ISBN978-94-007-4143-0 ISBN978-94-007-4144-7(eBook) DOI10.1007/978-94-007-4144-7 SpringerDordrechtHeidelbergNewYorkLondon LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2012948424 ©SpringerScience+BusinessMediaB.V.2013 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpartof thematerialisconcerned,specificallytherightsoftranslation,reprinting,reuseofillustrations,recitation, broadcasting,reproductiononmicrofilmsorinanyotherphysicalway,andtransmissionorinformation storageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodology nowknownorhereafterdeveloped.Exemptedfromthislegalreservationarebriefexcerptsinconnection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publisher’slocation,initscurrentversion,andpermissionforusemustalwaysbeobtainedfromSpringer. PermissionsforusemaybeobtainedthroughRightsLinkattheCopyrightClearanceCenter.Violations areliabletoprosecutionundertherespectiveCopyrightLaw. Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,servicemarks,etc.inthispublication doesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfromtherelevant protectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication,neithertheauthorsnortheeditorsnorthepublishercanacceptanylegalresponsibilityfor anyerrorsoromissionsthatmaybemade.Thepublishermakesnowarranty,expressorimplied,with respecttothematerialcontainedherein. Printedonacid-freepaper SpringerispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia(www.springer.com) Foreword Lestalentsécartentl’ennui,chassentlevice,etsèmentlaviedefleurs: puissance,richesse,vousn’offrezpointcesavantages! (Legend of a lithograph depicting the spirit of enlightened industry and belonging to a great–greatgranddaughterofLazareCarnot) The first part of this compendium consists of slightly revised excerpts from my monograph,LazareCarnotSavant,publishedin1971(Gillispie1971).Thepreface tothatbook,whichisbasedpartlyonaccesstotheCarnotfamilyarchives,explains howitcameto be written,andmakesthe necessaryacknowledgments.Itcontains a short section on the more famous work of Sadi Carnot, whose Réflexions sur la puissance du feu et sur les machines propres à développer cette puissance is generallyregardedas the origin of the science of thermodynamics(Carnot1824). Itappearedto methatSadiCarnot’sanalysismaybereadasan applicationofhis father’sinventionofthescienceofmachinestoheatengines. Ihavesuggestedasmuchinwhatfollows.Mycolleagueandco–author,Raffaele Pisano,hasindependentlydevotedmuchmoreintensivestudytotheworkofSadi Carnotanditsinfluence.Itseemedtobothofusthatitwouldbewelltopublish,or inmycasetorepublish,ourfindings.Bothfatherandsonweretrainedasengineers, Sadi at the newly foundedÉcole polytechnique.They had no idea that their work woulddevelopintothephysicsofworkandenergy.Soitcameabout,however,and that is the reason for including an account of it in a series devoted to the role of engineeringmechanics. The major portion of Lazare Carnot Savant is here included. We are not reprinting the appendices, which are reproductions of Carnot’s unpublished pa- pers discussed in Chapter 3, Parts A and B, nor the essay on the unpublished mathematical theory of the infinite contributed to my book by my late colleague, A.P. Youshkevitch, which has little to do with engineering mechanics. Princeton UniversityPress hasgenerouslygrantedthe necessarypermission,forwhichI am extremelygrateful. Princeton,USA CharlesCoulstonGillispie v Preface This extraordinary book on two outstanding French engineers and scientists has beenwrittenbytwoauthorswhocombinedtheireffortstothatendinaveryfruitful way. The result is based on deep historical, epistemological, and methodological insights that shed completelynew light on the scientific and filial relationship be- tweenthefamouspolitician,mathematician,andengineerLazareNicolasMarguerit Carnot (1753–1823) and his son Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot (1796–1832) who wasalsotrainedasanengineeratthenewlyfoundedÉcolepolytechniquedeParis. While LazareCarnotwroteon machinesandadaptedthe science ofmechanics tothescienceofmachines,hissonelaboratedageneral,abstract,thermodynamical theory.Insofar the purposeof Gillispie and Pisano is not to recountthe historyof mechanics,buttoidentifythepointsofentryofLazareCarnot’sengineeringscience intomechanics(p.100).Theauthorsarewellawarethattheanalogybetweenfluid flow and heat flow has often been discussed in the research literature in order to characterizetheinfluenceofLazare’sworkuponSadi’s(p.18). Yet,theauthorsmakeamuchwiderclaimforthecontinuitybetweentheworks of the two Carnots. They would like to show that Sadi Carnot’s Réflexions sur le puissancemotrice du feu publishedafter his father’sdeath“may properlybe read not only as the foundation of thermodynamics, but also as the culmination of a methodologicallyand conceptually coherentseries” of Lazare Carnot’s essays on thescienceofmachines(p.15). How can such a strong claim be demonstrated?Gillispie and Pisano study and compare the different steps of Lazare Carnot’s thinking about mechanics, of his writings,and comparethem with SadiCarnot’sRéflexionswhich canbe taken for thefoundationstoneinthescienceofthermodynamics(p.77). To that end they identify those elements of the arguments that were derived from the work of the father. They amply and clearly explain their methods and methodology as well and include even a whole chapter (Chap. 6) that deals with suchgeneralissueslikehistoricalmethodology,interpretation,andscientifictheory. Theirkeynotionishistoricalepistemologywhichisbasedontheuseoflogical- historicalcategories.The authorsadoptthem in orderto investigateSadi Carnot’s scientificthought.Theyareinterestedin effectivehistorythatishistoryrelyingon vii viii Preface the fundamental choices made by scientists who influenced the interpretation of historybymeansofcrucialchoices(p.156). Their leading questions read: What is the theoretical organization in the two Carnots?Onwhatprinciplesisitbased?Inordertoanswertothesetwoquestions theystudythehistoryofsciencebymeansofalogicalinvestigation(p.191).Thus they are able to demonstrate that Sadi Carnot’s reasonings with double negative sentences(DNS)arebasedonnon-classicallogic.Theauthors’listintheappendix comprehends 65 such sentences. Their sequence may synthetically express the entiredevelopmentofSadiCarnot’sscientificthought(p.205). Gillispie and Pisano convincingly conclude that Sadi Carnot’s “theory has to be qualified as a logical theory because the double negative sentences illustrate for the first time a very detailed structure of Sadi Carnot’s arguments,adequately representingCarnot’soriginalscientific thought”(p.211).But the two authorsgo evenfurtherby explainingthatthe originof theidea of the cyclewas the analogy with the electric circuit in Alessandro Volta’s battery. Hence Lazare Carnot, not Sadi,firsthadtheideaofthecycleofheatmachines(p.234). The fruitfulness of Gillispie’s and Pisano’s approach becomes again obvious when they apply the method of historical epistemology to the mathematical footnoteinSadiCarnot’sRéflexionswhichcombinesepistemologicalandhistorical approachestoidentifysignificanthistoricalhypotheses(p.257).Theauthorsclaim thatLazareCarnot’ssyntheticmethodispresentinSadiCarnot’stheorypayingpar- ticularattentiontoSadiCarnot’sreasoningprocess(p.279).Theirhopeiscertainly justified that their approachcan contributeto clarifythe birth and developmentof SadiCarnot’stheoryandthehistoricalknowledgeofthermodynamics. ComparingLazareandSadiCarnot’stheoriesoftheefficiencyofamachine,they concludethat“neithertheoryisbasedonaxioms,butontheprogramofscientifically resolvingacrucialproblemthatinthemindsofthelaypeopleofthetimecoincided withmetaphysics”(p.370). Gillispie and Pisano have written a really remarkable book that reveals an impressing knowledge of the huge amount of original and modern publications regardinghistoryandphilosophyofscience.Theyalwayshelpthereadernottolose trackofthingsbyaddingsummaries,illustrations,andbycompilingtheirarguments or those of their heroes in long lists. In spite of all similarities they have proved betweenfatherandsontheydonotoverlookacrucialdifferencebetweenthem.Sadi Carnot’sworkwasdeepinawaythathisfather’swasnot:Itfoundedthescienceof thermodynamics(p.86). Berlin,Germany EberhardKnobloch Acknowledgments Thegenesisofsuchadifficultandlengthybookhasdeeproots,andthefinalresult hasbeenalongtimeinthemaking.Whentheresearchandproductionofaworkof thisnatureiscarriedoutoverasignificantperiodoftime,manyfriendsandscholars becomecontributorstoboththeresearchandthewritingprocess.Iowegratitudeto manysuchpeopleandwillnevermanagetothankthemallappropriately. My own early research on Lazare and Sadi Carnot began with a lengthy dissertation on Sadi Carnot’s logic and mathematics which I wrote while on the facultyofphysicsattheUniversityofNaples“FedericoII”,inmynativecity.Since appearanceofthisspecializedhistoricalandscientificwork,manyadditionalpapers havebeenwrittenbymeandbyothers,onSadiCarnotaloneandonthetwoCarnots jointly, often in collaboration with my adviser Antonino Drago, the first Italian historian since the 1980s–1990sto recognize the importance of studying the two Carnots jointly as a unique program of scientific research in Italy. Therefore, my firstacknowledgmentsaretohim. Of course,thiscrucialfirstbooktoincludebothofthe Carnotswouldnothave been possible, first without Charles Gillispie’s approval and vast, indispensable workson LazareCarnot, and secondwithoutallof RobertFox’shistoricaldetails andprofoundresearchonSadiCarnot.Thesearetwodefinitive,worldwiderecog- nized,mastersofthehistoryofscienceand,aswell,friendsandcolleaguesofmine. Ifeelveryprivilegedtohaveknownandtohaveworkedwiththem. IamindebtedtoDaniloCapecchi,ascholarofstructuralmechanicsandhistorian of science at the University of Rome, “La Sapienza”. He is also a close friend of minewhoonmanyoccasionskindlyreadpartsofthebook,suggestingcorrections andimprovementsandaboveallencouragingme. A special acknowledgment goes out to my friend and historian, Eberhard Knobloch, President of the International Academy of the History of Science who generously accepted to write his insightful and very much appreciated Preface. I also thank him for his cultural and persuasive and constant, encouragement. A particular acknowledgement and appreciate goes to the European Society for the History of Science’s congresses for promoting the history of science in its broadest sense and contacts between scholars and institutions across Europe, and ix x Acknowledgments alltheworld.Itgavemethepossibilitytoknowandexchangeseveralelementsof interestofhistoryofscience,mechanicsandthermodynamics.ThusIhavenaturally incurredmanydebts. IhavetothanktheCentreFrançoiseVietè–épistémologies,histoiredessciences etdestechniquesandhishead,StéphaneTirard,UniversityofNantes,whereIwas welcomedtospendmypost–doctoraltenureresearchforacorrelatedprojectonthe historyofthermodynamics. IwanttothankIlariaGaudielloforherconstant,kindandconstructiveremarks andreadings. Amongtheinstitutions,aspecialthanksfortheirpreciousandkindcollaboration in allowingme to studyLazareandSadi’sprimarymanuscripts.Myregularvisits to French libraries and archives have also been a source of much pleasure. The courtesy with which I was received in the following archives was exemplary. I expressmy gratitudeto Olivier Azzola of the Archivesde l’École polytechnique de Paris who offered me very lovely pictures of “X” during Sadi Carnot’s time. For their professional and generous availability, I thank Claudine Pouret, of the Académie des sciences, Institut de France and Vincenzo de Luise of the Roberto StroffoliniArchive,DepartmentofPhysics,UniversityofNaples“FedericoII”.Iam particulargratefultoMonsieurGaetanCarnot,memberofCarnot’sfamilywhowas sogenerousforremovingallrestrictionsandauthorizedmetopublishplates,from theoriginalandspecialcollectionoffamily,portraitsbothLazareandSadiCarnot. The images are conserved in France at Académie François Bourdon. Thus deep and warm acknowledgmentsgo to the its director Ivan Kharaba and its archivist, François–YvesJulien,aswell. IalsointendthankClaudeDebruoftheÉcolenormalesupérieure,Parisforhis friendlyencouragementduringthis hard job and his interestwith Monsieur Jean– François Bach, Secrétaire Perpétuel of the French Académie des sciences for an officialandceremonialpresentationofthebook. Lastbutnotleast,IexpressmywarmandfriendlygratitudetoMarcoCeccarelli, Nathalie Jacobs, Anneke Pot, respectively Springer book Series Editor, Springer PublishingEditorin–chief,andSpringerEditorialAssistantfortheirgoodjoband positivereceptionofourprojectonthetwoCarnots. I would like to express my sincere gratitude for permission to reproduce ma- terials, readings–improvements,encouragements,collaborationsin seeking details AdeleBianchi IstitutoLombardoAccademiadiScienzeelettere AlessandraRavelli NationalArchiveClubAlpinoItaliano AnnieChassagne Bibliothèquedel’InstitutdeFrance FabienneQueyroux Bibliothèquedel’InstitutdeFrance MireillePastoureau Bibliothèquedel’InstitutdeFrance VirginiaMateus Bibliothèquedel’InstitutdeFrance AnneBernard Académiedessciences,InstitutdeFrance ClaudinePouret Académiedessciences,InstitutdeFrance ChristianePavel Académiedessciences,InstitutdeFrance