Conservation and Innovation : Helmholtz's Struggle with Energy ...

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himself. Helmholtz is seen rather as a source of reliable opinions: his (wrong) 1847 judgement that Joule's works of 1843-5 were not completely reliable is recalled; he is credited with being the first who generalized the principle to a number of applications; it is recognised that in 1854 he was the first to give due credit to Mayer and the first to indicate Mayer, Colding and Joule as pioneers . In this debate no precise evaluation of Helmholtz's work is made, nor is he involved in priority controversies with the British, as happened to Mayer and Clausius. This is perhaps due to his good relations with both contenders. ___________________________ As already mentioned, Helmholtz met Tyndall in Berlin in 1853 and, thanks to the latter's translation of the Erhaltung , already in 1853, during his first trip to Britain, he realized he was better known there than at home. Helmholtz's fame grew after Tyndall's translation of Helmholtz's popular talk of 1854 "On the Interaction of Natural Forces". An indication is the success, at the time of the controversy, of the two popular talks on the subject of energy conservation that Helmholtz gave in London, at the Royal Institution, in 1861 and 1864. The talks had been organised by Faraday and Tyndall respectively. Helmholtz and Tyndall kept interacting:in 1870 Helmholtz edited the German translation of Tyndall's Faraday as a Discoverer (to which he added an introduction 366), in 1871 Heat as a Mode of Motion , in 1874 the Lectures on Sound , in 1874 the Fragments of Science (with the preface:"On the Attempt to Popularize Science" 367). But Helmholtz since his second trip 368 to Britain, in 1855, had become a good friend also of W.Thomson, whom he met often. For instance in 1864, 366 Helmholtz, Hermann. Vorrede zur deutschen Übersetzung von J.Tyndall Faraday as a discoverer. Braunschweig: Vieweg, 1870; pp.V-XI. 367 Helmholtz, Hermann. Vorrede und Kritische Beilage zur deutschen Uebersetzung von J.Tyndall Fragments of Science. Braunschweig: Vieweg, 1874; pp.V-XXV and 581-97. Repr. in V u R 1884. Tr in: Nature 10 (1874): 299-302. 368 Helmholtz was a good traveller; among his trips: in 1840 and 1842 in Germany; in 1851 in Germany and Italy; in 1853, 1855, 1861, 1864, 1871, 1884 to Britain; in 1866 and 1881 to Paris; in 1878, 1881 and 1883 to Italy; in 1880 to Spain; in 1881 to Austria, in 1893 the dramatic one to Chicago; plus a number of holidays in Pontresina, Switzerland, a meeting point for other scientists, such as the Italian Blaserna.
while in Britain for the above talks at the Royal Institution, he managed to visit the Thomsons in Glasgow 369. Helmholtz also edited the German translation of Thomson and Tait's Textbook of Theoretical Physics . The first part of the first volume appeared with an introduction in 1871 370. The second part in 1874 was accompanied by Helmholtz's answer 371 to Zoellner's attacks (partly dealing with the debate on energy conservation). In 1885 Helmholtz's review of the first two volumes of W.Thomson "Mathematical and Physical Papers" appeared in Nature 372. It included an interesting account of the Carnot-Joule-W.Thomson-Clausius ideas on the dynamical theory of heat and on the dissipation of energy. Less friendly was Helmholtz's relationship with Tait. In 1868 Tait published in his Sketch of Thermodynamics a critical letter of Helmholtz's underlining Mayer's merits in the formulation of energy conservation 373. In the same book he credited Helmholtz with being "one of the most successful of the early promoters of the science of energy on legitimate principles" 374, but at the same time he criticized the central force hypothesis: "...is not in the present state of experimental science more than a very improbable hypothesis" 375. Helmholtz is instead credited with successful applications of the principle 376 . Tait's judgement is somehow modified in 1876 in the second edition of the Lectures on some recent advances in Physical Science, where the two assumptions of Helmholtz , now "one of the foremost of living mathematicians and natural philosophers" 377, 369 And also to visit Oxford and Stokes at Cambridge. 370 Helmholtz, Hermann. Vorrede zum ersten Theil des ersten Bandes der deutschen Uebersetzung von: W.Thomson und P.G.Tait Treatise on Natural Philosophy. Braunschweig: Vieweg, 1871; pp.X-XII. 371 Helmholtz, Hermann: Kritisches. Vorrede zum zweiten Theile des ersten Bandes von W.Thomson and P.G.Tait Treatise on Natural Philosophy Braunschweig: Vieweg, 1874; pp.V-XIV. Tr. in Nature 372 Helmholtz, Hermann. "Report on Sir William Thomson's Mathematical and Physical Papers". Vol.1 and 2. In Nature 32 (1885): 25-8. achievements. 373 See previous section for Helmholtz's changing evaluation of Mayer's 374 Tait Sketch p. 375 Tait Sketch par.96 p.56. 376 Tait Sketch par.104 p. and par.127 p.. 377 Tait Advances p.67.
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Fabio Bevilacqua Conservation and I
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different formulations 4 and priori
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and interesting results, despite th
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principle of correlation is express
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principle to the existing empirical
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the origin and meaning of the princ
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Whether physiological research, apa
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In a discussion on the origins of a
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his "Wärme" that one of the differ
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generate a determined equivalent of
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"Bericht", despite the application
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experiments in the most disparate b
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The premise reveals that the struct
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intelligible if it can be referred
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elevant consequence of the deductio
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Needless to say the plan was to be
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and from here that the direction an
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since Leonardo 113; the "ad nihilum
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But unfortunately for the whole str
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The principle of conservation of vi
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different from the one joining the
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"The equality that exists between e
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In virtue of its limitations to New
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Helmholtz, while asserting that lig
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Madison: Wisconsin U.P., 1959. Pp.
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Poincarè, Henry. Electricité et O
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Yagi, Eri."Clausius's Mathematical
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