Conservation and Innovation : Helmholtz's Struggle with Energy ...
Conservation and Innovation : Helmholtz's Struggle with Energy ...
Conservation and Innovation : Helmholtz's Struggle with Energy ...
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important also for <strong>Helmholtz's</strong> underst<strong>and</strong>ing of energy conservation: it was in<br />
fact the only experimental research in this field that he made. <strong>Helmholtz's</strong><br />
underst<strong>and</strong>ing <strong>and</strong> evaluation of the mechanical equivalent of heat is probably to<br />
be connected <strong>with</strong> this very research 64.<br />
In the next section I will show that the entire Erhaltung only offered a<br />
theoretical reinterpretation of known results, but no new experiments. In my view<br />
physiology could not <strong>and</strong> did not provide a key to <strong>Helmholtz's</strong> conservation of<br />
"force": it did not offer theoretical nor experimental evidence for the<br />
establishment of the principle of force correlation (the refusal of vital force was,<br />
rather, based on an already accepted impossibility of perpetual motion).<br />
Nevertheless it did provide Helmholtz <strong>with</strong> an interesting battleground <strong>and</strong> his<br />
only original experimental data 65.<br />
The Erhaltung <strong>and</strong> its two different conceptual roots: the<br />
impossibility of perpetual motion <strong>and</strong> the Newtonian forces<br />
hypothesis.(1847)<br />
From October 1846 to July 1847 Helmholtz, not distracted but rather<br />
inspired by his love <strong>and</strong> engagement <strong>with</strong> Olga von Velten 66, worked hard at the<br />
Erhaltung. But we already know that this was not his only commitment: at the<br />
same time he was also involved <strong>with</strong> experiments on the heat produced during<br />
muscular action. Koenigsberger asserts that in the first quarter of 1847 Helmholtz<br />
had formulated his ideas on energy conservation <strong>and</strong> had tested them <strong>with</strong><br />
64 This point is made by Lenoir ibid. P.211, even if details are not given. This<br />
interpretation offers a clue to Koenigsberger's already recalled claims of deep experimentation<br />
carried forward by Helmholtz in 1846-47. See also Kremer ibid.P.244. Olesko & Holmes<br />
"Experiment" P.34.<br />
65 See also Koenigsberger, Leo. "The Investigations of Hermann von Helmholtz on<br />
The Fundamental Principles of Mathematics <strong>and</strong> Mechanics." In Annual Report of the Smith<br />
Inst to July 1986. Washington 1898. Pp.93-124. P.101.<br />
66 See the dedication, afterwards <strong>with</strong>drawn, on the manuscript of the Erhaltung:<br />
Helmholtz, Hermann.Über die Erhaltung der Kraft . Christa Kirsten ed. Weinheim: Physik-<br />
Verlag, 1983, P.14; see also Koenigsberger H v H Pp.35-7.