| RefNo | MS/603/7/284 |
| Previous numbers | 1312 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Letter from O J [Oliver Joseph] Lodge, Mariemont, Edgbaston, to [Joseph] Larmor |
| Creator | Lodge; Sir Oliver Joseph (1851-1940); British physicist |
| Recipient | Larmor; Sir Joseph (1857-1942); Irish theoretical physicist |
| Date | 24 October 1918 |
| Description | He thinks Larmor is 'fogging' himself about units, J being the specific heat of water. Heat being a form of energy, it would naturally be expressed in the same units as work. He discusses this, saying that there are only two alternatives, those of [Nicholas Sadi] Carnot or of [James Prescott] Joule. Each is self-consistent and experiment had to decide which was true. Lodge does not bother to write J until he comes to practical measurement and ordinarary calorimetry, where heat is measured as heat capacity of some substance. Lodge feels strongly about the question of units as there is 'a lot of fog in engineering' because of the supposed necessity of expressing things in certain units. Equations of the sort he refers to ar 'sometimes useful gibberish', but are of convention, not reality. He thought the argument in Larmor's paper was that Carnot ought to have arrived at the Joulean solution, but he now thinks that Larmor meant that Carnot might have perceived it possible, as an alternative. He cannot see the point of novelty in Larmor's paper, citing the known facts about Carnot, the Clausius-Thomson theory, and its harmonsation of Carnot with Joule. He disregards Larmor's references to limiting cases and other areas, saying that he expresses himself in 'Fitzgeraldean vehemence'. On page 328 of Larmor's Royal Society paper he gives the two alternatives clearly, which Lodge thinks have always been before them. There was no pressure on Carnot to adopt one or other, and he probably did not see that more than one was open to him; if he had he might well have chosen the simler hypothesis. |
| Extent | 7p. |
| Format | Manuscript |
| PhysicalDescription | Ink on paper |
| AccessStatus | Open |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA8070 | Lodge; Sir; Oliver Joseph (1851 - 1940); physicist | 1851 - 1940 |