Episode 1 of 1

Publication of 'On the Moving Force of Heat'

When: 1850
Where: Publication Venue
Part of: Rudolf Clausius publishes his paper on the mechanical theory of heat

Clausius published his seminal paper in 1850, establishing the second law of thermodynamics by analyzing heat transfer and work.

Published in 1850, this paper first stated the basic ideas of the second law. It examined the relation between heat transfer and work, recognizing Joule's work on energy conservation. This work provided a truer basis for heat theory than previous caloric models.

Sources

Rudolf Clausius Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-29
Second law of thermodynamics Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-05

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.