Abstract
CARNOT laid down the great and incontrovertible principle that if, when we have obtained motive power by the application of heat, we inquire whether we have obtained the maximum of motive power from this application, we can answer this question by ascertaining whether by applying the same amount of motive power in reversing the process of expansion, or expansion and contraction, in the course of which we have obtained motive power, we can bring the working substance back to its starting-point. When the process is reversible in this manner, we have obtained the maximum possible output in motive power, whatever be the nature of the working substance, gaseous, liquid, or solid.
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Carnot's Cycle and Efficiency of Heat-Engines1. Nature 116, 326–327 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/116326a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/116326a0