ABSTRACT
The physics of heat, during the Scientific Revolution, was less advanced, in terms of principles, than mechanics, probably on account of the intrinsic complexity of thermal processes. At that time, a deeper empirical knowledge of these processes was achieved, resulting from researches on artificially generated processes and no longer only from the observation of natural phenomena. This semiquantitative experimentation was made possible thanks to some basic technical developments and was connected to the birth of famous scientific institutions: the Accademia del Cimento in Florence, the Académie Royale des Sciences in Paris, and the Royal Society of London.
