Work and Waste: Political Economy and Natural Philosophy in Nineteenth Century Britain (III)

History of Science

Volumn 28, Issue 3, 1990, Pages 221-261

  Wise, M Norton ^a   Smith, Crosbie ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF KENT   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84965629342     PISSN: 00732753     EISSN: 17538564     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/007327539002800301     Document Type: Article

References (78)

1. Abbreviations used: ULC = Kelvin Collection, Cambridge University Library; ULG = Glasgow University Library; Proceedings = Proceedings of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow; Energy and empire = Smith Crosbie and Wise M. Norton, Energy and empire: A biographical study of Lord Kelvin (Cambridge, 1989); MPP = Thomson William, Mathematical and physical papers (6 vols, Cambridge, 1882–1911). I thank the Cambridge and Glasgow libraries for permission to quote from their archival materials.
2. Gourlie William Jr, “On the cultivation of plants in close cases” (15 December 1841), Proceedings of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow (hereafter Proceedings), i (1844), 16. Although the Philosophical Society had met since 1802, it only began publishing its proceedings in 1841.
3. Mackain Daniel, “On the ventilation of the Glasgow Fever Hospital” (12 January 1842), Proceedings, i (1844), 24–25.
4. Thomson R. D., “Report of the section on physiology, on the best means of supplying the poor with cheap and nutritious food” (14 February 1842), Proceedings, i (1844), 29–40, pp. 32, 36–37. Liddel's request p. 16 and response, with new recipes for fish pudding, stewed hash of sheep's draught, and mince of cow's heart, p. 40.
5. Dickens Charles, Hard times (1854), ed. by Ford G. and Monod S. (New York, 1966), 2.
6. Thomson, “Report”, Proceedings, i (1844), 30; citing Boussingault J. B. J. D., “Recherches sur la quantité d’azote contenue dans les fourrages, et sur leur équivalens”, Annales de chimie et de physique, 2nd series, lxiii (1836), 225–44.
7. Thomson George, “Practical remarks on blast furnaces” (4 January 1843), Proceedings, i (1844), 84–92, p. 92.
8. Thomson, “Report”, Proceedings, i (1844), 40. The relation of heat and labour in the animal economy remained ambiguous. Thomson R. D., “On the chemistry of food” (2 December 1846), Proceedings, ii (1846), 137, would separate food into ‘nutritive’ and ‘calorifiant’ components with different destinations: “1st to repair the waste of the system of animals and 2d, to produce heat”.
9. The new statistical account of Scotland, 7: Renfrew-Argyle (London and Edinburgh, 1845), 41.
10. Crum Walter, “On chlorimetry, and on a new mode of testing weak solutions of bleaching powder” (29 December 1841), Proceedings, i (1844), 17–23.
11. The new statistical account of Scotland, 6: Lanark (London and Edinburgh, 1845), 101–246.
12. Thomson F. H., “Opening address by the President”, Proceedings, vi (1865–1868), 233–6. Morrell J. B., “The chemist breeders: The research schools of Liebig and Thomas Thomson”, Ambix, xix (1972), 1–46; idem, “Thomas Thomson: Professor of Chemistry and University Reformer”, The British journal for the history of science, iv (1969), 245–65. Kargon R. H., Science in Victorian Manchester: Enterprise and expertise (Manchester, 1977).
13. Memoir of Lewis D. B. Gordon f.r.s.e. (Edinburgh, 1877).
14. Gordon Lewis, “On the determination of the melting points of metals and various metallurgic products, and of the temperature required for the formation of different silicates” (1 December 1841), Proceedings, i (1844), 10–13.
15. Gordon Lewis, “On dynamometrical apparatus; or, the measurement of the mechanical effect of moving powers” (23 February 1842), Proceedings, i (1844), 41–42; idem, “Note on the measure of impact, by pressure or weight” (14 February 1844), Proceedings, i (1844), 208–9, where Gordon attempts to provide an ‘absolute’ measure of impact, revealing the highly ambiguous status of momentum and mechanical effect.
16. Gordon, “Dynamometrical apparatus”, 42.
17. Thomson R. D., “On the nutritive power of bread and flour of different countries” (26 April 1843), Proceedings, i (1844), 163–4; idem, “Observations on the nutritive power of maize, or Indian corn, as compared with other kinds of grain” (23 March 1846), Proceedings, ii (1848), 111, it being “as wholesome and palatable as common wheat bread, and much cheaper”; idem, “On the chemistry of food” (2 December 1846), Proceedings, ii (1848), 137.
18. Gordon Lewis, (titles only) “On the most economical use of steam” (20 November 1844), “On the economy of using steam expansively” (8 January 1845), “On Auld's patent self-regulating damper for steam-engine boilers” (17 December 1845), and “On the theoretical mechanical effect of steam” (24 January 1846), Proceedings, ii (1848), 8, 11, 92, 104.
19. Buchanan W. M., “On the reaction of water, and the theory of the reaction water-wheel” (1 April 1846), Proceedings, ii (1848), 110–30, pp. 112, 113, 128. Randolph C. Mr (presumably of Randolph, Elliot, … Co.) participated in Buchanan's experiments and gave the same address as Buchanan in the Society membership list.
20. Buchanan, “Reaction water-wheel”, 114–15.
21. Spens William, “On the minimum rate of annual premiums for insurance of select lives from twenty to sixty, and on the value of annual additions to insurance at those ages” (13 March 1844), Proceedings, i (1844), 217–26, pp. 218, 226. Spens calculates the value of annuities on the basis of the ‘value of life’ (life expectancy) at different ages.
22. Balfour J. H., “Notice of excursions made from Glasgow with botanical pupils during the summer session of 1843” (29 April 1844), Proceedings, i (1844), 263–8, p. 264.
23. Proceedings, i (1844): Wilson John, “Comparative experiments made with different manures” (6 April 1842), 51–52; T[homson] R. D., “Notice of some recent additions to chemistry” (30 November 1842), 68–76; Blantyre Lord, “Experiments on various manures” (18 January 1843), 93–94; etc.
24. Balfour J. H., “Account of a botanical excursion to the Mull of Cantyre or Kintyre and the Island of Islay, in August, 1844”, Proceedings, ii (1848), 22–49, pp. 25, 28, 30, 34.
25. Sutherland G., “On the unemployed lands of Great Britain”, Proceedings, ii (1848), 73–75, p. 73.
26. Smith James, “Notice of a visit to the Island of Lewis” (13 November 1844), Proceedings, ii (1848), 1–7, pp. 6–7; idem, “Some peculiarities in the native agriculture of the Lews” (5 January 1848), Proceedings, ii (1848), 210–13.
27. Alston James, “On printing for the blind”, Proceedings, i (1844), 239–42, p. 242.
28. Liddel Andrew, “Statistical account of the Philosophical Society's exhibition, during the Christmas holidays” (10 February 1847), Proceedings, ii (1848), 145–53.
29. Watt Alexander, “On the vital statistics of five large towns of Scotland” (1 March 1843), Proceedings, i (1844), 114–23, p. 115, my emphasis.
30. Watt Alexander, “On the laws of mortality at different ages” (3 January 1844), Proceedings, i (1844), 193–9, pp. 196, 198. Watt expresses his views on the natural system of the patient in terms of constant and accidental causes, as in the older balancing schemes, but his “precise laws” express the dynamics of change, not balance.
31. Thomson F. H., m.d., “On caries, or decay of the teeth” (15 April 1846), Proceedings, ii (1848), 131–3. Crum Walter, “Artificial production of the potato disease” (19 November 1845), Proceedings, ii (1848), 90–91. On the theory of communicable diseases, see Thomson R. D., “Contributions to a sanatory report on Glasgow” (29 March 1848), Proceedings, ii (1848), 260–1: “the seed will not take root unless it falls on a congenial soil, that is, a diseased state of the blood, generated by a defective, or impure diet”.
32. Thomson R. D., “Report on the state of disease in Scotland” (12 April 1843), Proceedings, i (1844), 153–5, p. 153. Largely repeated in Watt Alexander, “On the defective state of the registers of births, marriages, and deaths in Scotland” (12 April 1844), Proceedings, i (1844), 256–8.
33. Watt, “Laws of mortality” (ref. 36), 194.
34. Gourlie William Jr, “Notice of the fossil plants in the Glasgow Geological Museum” (15 February 1843), Proceedings, i (1844), 105–13, p. 112.
35. Energy and empire, 99–116.
36. Cunnison J. and Gilfillan J. B. S. (eds), The third statistical account of Scotland: Glasgow (Glasgow, 1958), 476.
37. Thomson William, “Notice of Stirling's air engine” (21 April 1847), Proceedings, ii (1848), 169–70. For Gordon's papers on the economical use of steam see ref. 20.
38. James to Thomson William, 9 July 1862, T117, ULG. Energy and empire, 285–6.
39. James to Thomson William, 13 August 1863, T119, ULG.
40. James to Thomson William, 4 August 1844, T402, ULC.
41. See the evaluation by Fox Robert in Carnot Sadi, Reflexions on the motive power of fire: A critical edition with the surviving scientific manuscripts, ed. and trans. by Fox Robert (Manchester, 1986), 22–26.
42. Gourlie, “Fossil Plants” (ref. 40), 110.
43. Thomson William, “On the linear motion of heat. Part I” and “Part II”, Cambridge mathematical journal, iii (1843), 170–4, 206–11; MPP, i, 10–21. Idem, “Note on some points in the theory of heat”, Cambridge mathematical journal, iv (1845), 67–72; MPP, i, 39–47, p. 40.
44. Only one page of the original Latin text survives, but it shows the same “age” arguments. Text in PA103, ULC, and Thompson S. P., The life of William Thomson, Baron of Kelvin of Largs (2 vols, London, 1910), i, 187.
45. Thomson, “Theory of heat” (ref. 49), 40, my emphasis.
46. Energy and empire, 168–202.
47. Thomson William, 8 April 1845, NB33, ULC, pp. 177–9. I have regularized the spelling and omitted Thomson's deletions. For the full version see Energy and empire, 245.
48. Thomson William, “Applications of the principle of mechanical effect to the measurement of electro-motive forces, and of galvanic resistances, in absolute units”, Philosophical magazine, series 4, ii (1851), 551–62; MPP, i, 490–502.
49. Thomson William, “On an absolute thermometric scale, founded on Carnot's theory of the motive power of heat, and calculated from the results of Regnault's experiments on the pressure and latent heat of steam”, Philosophical magazine, series 3, xxxiii (1848), 313–17; MPP, i, 100–6, p. 103. William Thomson to Lewis Gordon, 20 December 1847, G124 (copy), ULC.
50. Manuscripts of James Thomson, A9, ULB.
51. James to William Thomson, 4 August 1844, T402, ULC. My emphasis.
52. Energy and empire, 412–17.
53. Thomson, “Stirling's air engine” (ref. 43), 169. Here Thomson uses ‘work’ in the sense of Whewell's labouring force and the French travail.
54. Thomson William to Forbes J. D., 1 March 1847, Forbes Papers, St Andrews University Library. James soon raised objections to William's argument about freezing, leading to their collaborative work on the relation between expansion of ice on freezing and the depression of the freezing point under pressure. Energy and empire, 296–9.
55. William to Thomson, 1 July 1847, T367, ULC. James to Thomson William, 24 July 1847, T433, ULC; Thomson James, Collected papers in physics and engineering (Cambridge, 1912), pp. xxx–xxxi.
56. Glassford C. F. O., “History and description of the kelp manufacture” (15 March 1848), Proceedings, ii (1848), 241–60, p. 242.
57. Thomson James, A treatise on arithmetic in theory and practice (2nd edn, Belfast, 1825), pp. iii–iv, 167.
58. For example, James Thomson to William, 28 October 1841, T180, ULC; 12 October 1844, T274, ULC; Thompson, Life (ref. 50), i, 29, 41, 87. On the image of aristocratic Cambridge, see Rothblatt Sheldon, The revolution of the dons: Cambridge and society in Victorian England (Cambridge, 1981), 65–75, 186–7.
59. Joule J. P., “Investigations in magnetism and electro-magnetism” (letter of 28 May 1839, to Sturgeon's Annals of electricity), reprinted in The scientific papers of James Prescott Joule (2 vols, London, 1887), i, 10–14.
60. Joule J. P., “On the heat evolved by metallic conductors of electricity, and in the cells of a battery during electrolysis”, Philosophical magazine, 3rd series, xix (1841), 260–77; Scientific papers, i, 60–81, p. 60. Idem, “On the calorific effects of magneto-electricity, and on the mechanical value of heat”, Philosophical magazine, 3rd series, xxiii (1843), 263–76, 347–55, 435–43; Scientific papers, i, 123–59.
61. Joule J. P., “On matter, living force, and heat” (lecture at St Ann's Church Reading-room, 1847), in Scientific papers, i, 265–76, pp. 272–3.
62. Thomson William, “An account of Carnot's theory of the motive power of heat; with numerical results deduced from Regnault's experiments on steam”, Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, xvi (1849), 541–74; MPP, i, 113–55, p. 118–19n. Idem, “The dynamical theory of heat” (preliminary draft), PA128, ULC; transcript in Smith Crosbie, “William Thomson and the creation of thermodynamics: 1840–1855”, Archive for history of exact sciences, xvi (1976), 231–88, pp. 232–7. The pages printed as 13 and 14 in the transcript should be reversed and the word ‘produces’ inserted at the end of the correct page 13.
63. Thomson William, “On the dynamical theory of heat, with numerical results deduced from Mr. Joule's equivalent of a thermal unit, and M. Regnault's observation on steam”, Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, xx (1853), 261–88; MPP, i, 174–89, p. 179.
64. Thomson William, “Dynamical theory” (draft); in Smith, “Creation of thermodynamics” (ref. 70), 281.
65. Napier J. R. [iron shipbuilder], Walter Neilson [mechanical engineer], and Rankine W. J. M. [professor of engineering], “Report on the progress and state of applied mechanics” (7 April 1858), Proceedings, iv (1860), 207–30, p. 208.
66. NB34, ULC, p. 87. The general field result appeared (cryptically) in Thomson William, “Theorems with reference to the solution of certain partial differential equations”, Cambridge and Dublin mathematical journal, iii (1848), 84–87; Reprint of papers on electrostatics and magnetism (London, 1872), 139–43. The force derivation is in “On the forces experienced by small spheres under magnetic influence; and on some of the phenomena presented by diamagnetic substances”, Cambridge and Dublin mathematical journal, ii (1847), 230–5; Papers on electrostatics and magnetism, 493–9; and it is generalized in his “On the theory of magnetic induction in crystalline and non-crystalline substances”, Philosophical magazine, series 4, i (1851), 177–86; Papers on electrostatics and magnetism, 465–81.
67. NB34, ULC, p. 125, 12 July 1849. See also Thomson William, “On the mechanical values of distributions of electricity, magnetism, and galvanism” (19 January 1853), Proceedings, iii (1855), 281–5, “mechanically valuable effects”, p. 282; MPP, i, 521–33, p. 522.
68. Thomson William, “On the electro-dynamic qualities of metals”, Philosophical transactions, cxlvi (1856), 649–751; MPP, ii, 189–327, p. 189.
69. Whewell William, The mechanics of engineering (Cambridge, 1841), 156. Jack William, “Notes from William Thomson's natural philosophy class, 1852–3”, Ms Gen. 130, ULG.
70. Thomson William and Tait P. G., Treatise on natural philosophy (Oxford, 1867), 200. Thomson replaced ‘mechanical effect’ with ‘mechanical energy’ in 1851, dividing it into ‘statical energy’ and ‘dynamical energy’; in 1852 he adopted Rankine's terms ‘potential’ and ‘actual’ energy and in 1862 substituted ‘potential’ and ‘kinetic’ energy, which have survived. Energy and empire, 346–7, 378.
71. I summarize here material from Energy and empire, 380–95, and from Wise M. Norton, “Mediating machines”, Science in context, ii (1988), 77–113.
72. Smith William, “Notes of the Glasgow College natural philosophy class taken during the 1849–50 session”, Ms Gen. 142, ULG, 20 March 1850, lecture 80.
73. Murray David, “Lecture notes in Classe physica, Bench II, 1862–3”, MS Murray, 326, ULG, p. 177; Thomson William, “Dft. MSS for T and T′” [1862], PA177, ULC.
74. Murray, “Lecture notes … 1862–3”, 85–87, 121–3, 141, 151.
75. Tait P. G. to Thomson William, 20 January 1862, T61, ULC.
76. Tait P. G., in Thomson William, 12 March 1863, “Notebook re Hamiltonian dynamics”, NB50, ULC.
77. Tait P. G. to Thomson William, 25 March 1863, T39, ULG, and 4 April 1863, in Knott C. G., Life and scientific work of Peter Guthrie Tait (Cambridge, 1911), 182. Thomson William, “On some kinematical and dynamical theorems” (6 April 1863), Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, v (1866), 113–15; MPP, iv, 458–9. Murray, “Lecture notes … 1862–3” (ref. 81), 178.
78. Thomson and Tait, Treatise (ref. 78), 234–5.