ABSTRACT
Thermodynamics is 'a science with secure foundations, clear definitions, and distinct boundaries'. Thus wrote Maxwell in 1878, and his words were echoed by Gibbs in the obituary tribute to Clausius to which we have referred in the previous chapter. But Gibbs traced the origin of these foundations, definitions and boundaries to the first paper which Clausius published on thermodynamics in 1850 entitled 'Ueber die bewegende Kraft der Warme, und die Gesetze, welche sich daraus fur die Warmelehre selbst ableiten lassen' ('On the Motive Power of Heat and on the Laws which can be deduced from it for the Theory of Heat').
