H. B. Reitlinger and the origins of the efficiency at maximum power formula for heat engines
-
Alexandre Vaudrey
,
François Lanzetta
Abstract
Even if not so ancient, the history of the heat engine efficiency at maximum power expression has been yet turbulent. More than a decade after the publication of the seminal article by Curzon and Ahlborn in 1975, two older works by Chambadal and Novikov were rediscovered, both dating from 1957. Then, some years ago, the name of Yvon arose from a textual reference to this famous relation in a conference article published in 1955. Thanks to a historical study of French-written books not published for a long time, and since never translated into other languages, we bring to light in this paper that this relation was actually first proposed by Henri B. Reitlinger in 1929.
The authors want to thank the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) for the digitizing of the Reitlinger's book that allowed the present study and paper.
© 2014 by De Gruyter
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- An improvement in the calculation of the efficiency of oxidative phosphorylation and rate of energy dissipation in mitochondria
- First and second thermodynamic law analyses applied to a solar dish collector
- H. B. Reitlinger and the origins of the efficiency at maximum power formula for heat engines
- Non-equilibrium thermodynamics analysis of transcriptional regulation kinetics
- Study of ethane hydrate formation kinetics using the chemical affinity model with and without presence of surfactants
- Derivation of the mechanical and thermodynamic potentials from the generalized BMP model under shear-banding flow
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- An improvement in the calculation of the efficiency of oxidative phosphorylation and rate of energy dissipation in mitochondria
- First and second thermodynamic law analyses applied to a solar dish collector
- H. B. Reitlinger and the origins of the efficiency at maximum power formula for heat engines
- Non-equilibrium thermodynamics analysis of transcriptional regulation kinetics
- Study of ethane hydrate formation kinetics using the chemical affinity model with and without presence of surfactants
- Derivation of the mechanical and thermodynamic potentials from the generalized BMP model under shear-banding flow
