Helmholtz and the conservation of energy : contexts of creation and reception / Kenneth L. Caneva.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Caneva, Kenneth L., author.

Series:

Transformations (M.I.T. Press)

Transformations : studies in the history of science and technology

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Force and energy--History.

Force and energy.

Physicists--Germany--Biography.

Physicists.

Helmholtz, Hermann von, 1821-1894.

Helmholtz, Hermann von.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : The MIT Press, [2021]

Summary:

"Exhaustive history of Helmholtz's work on the conservation of energy and its broad acceptance"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Acknowledgments

Conventions

Introduction

1. Helmholtz's Self-Described Principal Concerns

The Impossibility of a Perpetuum Mobile

Heat as a Form of Motion-Including a Molecular-Mechanical Ontology and a Reductionist Physiology

The Source of Animal Heat

The Illegitimacy of a Vital Force

Rational Mechanics and the Conservation of Vis Viva

Causality, Epistemology, and the Nature of Force

2. The Broader Context

Chemical and Physical Equivalents

The Nature of Heat

The Source of Animal Heat-and Motion

The Role and Legitimacy of a Vital Force

The Steam Engine as Metaphor

From Leibniz to Daniel Bernoulli

From d'Alembert to Duhamel

The Relationship of Mechanics to Physics

The Impossibility (or Not) of Perpetual Motion and of the Indefinite Creation of Force

The Changing Character of Physiology

3. More Immediate Contexts: Johannes Müller and Justus Liebig

4. The Problematic Introduction to On the Conservation of Force and the Question of Kantian Influence

5. The Emergence of Helmholtzian Conservation of Force

6. What Helmholtz Believed He Had Accomplished

7. The Reception of On the Conservation of Force: The First Ten Years

Immediate and Local Responses

The Situation in Königsberg

German Physiologists' Responses

Responses Farther Afield: Danish and Dutch Scientists

Focused Responses for Broader German and Danish Audiences

Helmholtz among the British

Helmholtz and William Thomson

Helmholtz and Macquorn Rankine

Other British Connections and Mutual Influences

8. Helmholtz and the Conservation of Force in Poggendorff's Annalen through 1865 and in the Fortschritte der Physik through 1867.

9. Helmholtz's Place in the Acceptance of the Conservation of Energy

Helmholtz's Terminology over Time

Helmholtz's Presentation of the Conservation of Energy over Time

Helmholtz's Low Public Profile in the Late 1850s

Helmholtz Acquires a Place in the Popularization of the Conservation of Energy

Citation, Engagement, and Implicit Influence, 1858-1860

The Conservation of Energy Becomes a Matter of Contention in Britain, 1862-1864-without Helmholtz

The Status of the Conservation of Energy and Its Ascription to Helmholtz: Focused Critiques

Some of Physicists' Principal Concerns, ca. 1870-1900

Arguments in Terms of the Impossibility of Constructing a Perpetuum Mobile

The Relationship between the Conservation of Energy and the Conservation of Vis Viva

The Conservation of Energy between Physics and Mechanics

Ontological Considerations

Methodological Considerations

Causality and the Conservation of Energy

Forging a Concept of Force-as-Energy

Forces as Quantitatively Indestructible and Qualitatively Changeable

Forces as Expendable

Forces as Substantial Entities

Helmholtz's Place in the Adoption of the Conservation of Energy in Textbooks and Monographs

Works in English

Works in German

Works in French

10. Helmholtz's Relationship to Robert Mayer

Encounters and Responses

Methodological Issues: Mayer and Metaphysics

Methodological Issues: Helmholtz and Mayer as Proxies

11. Reflections, Assessment, and Conclusions

Historiographical Excursus: How Others Have Interpreted Helmholtz's Achievement

Appendix: Magnus's Letter of 1858 to Alexander von Humboldt

Notes

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Historiographical Excursus.

Bibliography of Primary Sources

Bibliography of Secondary Sources

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.

ISBN:

0-262-36383-6

0-262-36384-4

OCLC:

1256586384