The ice calorimeter of Lavoisier and Laplace and some of its critics

References

• The calorimeter was first described and illustrated by Lavoisier A.L. Laplace P.S. Mémoire sur la chaleur Paris 1783 later published in Mém. Acad. R. Sci., 1780 (1784), 355–408; reprinted in Oeuvres de Lavoisier, Paris, 1862, vol. ii, pp. 283–333. A full account also appeared in Lavoisier's Traité élémentaire de chimie, Paris, 1789, pp. 387–402. For details of various reprints, abstracts and translations see D. I. Duveen and H. S. Klickstein, A Bibliography of … Lavoisier, London, 1954, pp. 54–56, 154–199, 248–249. The most readily accessible account in English is in the translation of the Traité by Robert Kerr: Elements of Chemistry, Edinburgh, 1790, pp. 343–356 (reprinted with an Introduction by D. McKie, Dover Publications Inc., New York, 1965).
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• Guerlac , H. Laplace's collaboration with Lavoisier . Actes du XIIe Congrès International d'Histoire des Sciences . Paris. pp. 31 – 36 . 3B (published 1971).
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• McKie , D. and Heathcote , N.H. de V. 1935 . The Discovery of Specific and Latent Heats 122 – 130 . London
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• Lavoisier , A.L. 1789 . Traité élémentaire de chimie 390 – 390 . Paris
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• Kirwan to Bergman, 6 October 1783: Torbern Bergman's Foreign Correspondence Carlid G. Nordström J. Stockholm 1965 i 187 188 Kirwan was correct; the results obtained by Lavoisier and Laplace were generally too low (see below).
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• Watt to Black, 25 September, 1783: Robinson E. McKie D. Partners in Science London and Cambridge, Massachusetts 1970 128 128
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• Schwediauer to Bergman, 3 July, 1780: Carlid Nordström Torbern Bergman's Foreign Correspondence Stockholm 1965 i 326 326 (note 6)
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• Black to Watt, 28 May, 1784: Robinson McKie Partners in Science London and Cambridge, Massachusetts 1970 139 140 (note 7) In his posthumously published Lectures on the Elements of Chemistry (Edinburgh, 1803, vol. i, pp. 174–175) Black stated that he had conceived the idea of comparing the latent heat of steam with the amount of heat in boiling water by measuring the quantities of ice melted by both. He ‘projected some experiments for this purpose, to be tried in the ensuing frosts’, but did not in fact perform them, as Watt provided him with measurements of latent heat obtained by a different method. Black described Lavoisier's calorimeter as ‘a most ingenious apparatus for the purpose of measuring all productions of heat, by the quantity of ice melted …’ and did not mention Wedgwood's criticisms. It seems clear that Black himself never carried out experiments with an ice calorimeter, even though ‘Black's ice calorimeter’ was mentioned by H. C. Callendar, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed., London, 1910, vol. v, p. 62, and vol. xiii, p. 136. It was alleged to consist of two hemispheres of ice, between which the hot object was placed: when it had cooled, the hemispheres were separated and the resulting water soaked up in a weighed sponge, which was then re-weighed. There is no evidence that Black ever used such a device (see McKie and Heathcote, op. cit. (note 3), p. 27) and it is not known why Callender thought that he did. The two hemispheres would, in fact, correspond to Laplace's ‘ideal’ ice calorimeter (see text above). In 1816 Hassenfratz (see note 33) said that ‘Gay Lussac and some physicists’ recommended the use of two hemispheres of ice, in the way described later by Callendar. However, we do not know whether anyone tried to put the idea into practice.
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• Schofield , R.E. 1963 . The Lunar Society of Birmingham 267 – 268 . Oxford
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• Wedgwood , J. 1784 . Phil. Trans. , 74 : 358 – 384 . For a full account of Wedgwood's research on pyrometry, see J. A. Chaldecott, ‘Studies in the history of pyrometry’, University of London Ph.D. thesis, 1972; a short account is given by R. E. Schofield, op. cit. (note 10), pp. 262–267.
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• 1783 . Monthly Review Vol. 69 , 568 – 579 .
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• Nicholson , W. 1808 . A Dictionary of Practical and Theoretical Chemistry , 2nd ed. London article ‘Calorimeter’, unpaginated. The calorimeter was not mentioned in the 1st ed., 1795.
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• Thomson , T. 1804 . A System of Chemistry , 2nd ed. Vol. i , 387 – 387 . Edinburgh Thomson later revised his opinion of the ice calorimeter (see note 43, below).
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• Higgins , B. , ed. 1795 . Minutes of the Society for Philosophical Experiments and Conversations 241 – 263 . London For a short account of the Society, see F. W. Gibbs, ‘Bryan Higgins and his Circle’, Chemistry in Britain, 1965, 1, 60–65; reprinted in A. E. Musson (ed.), Science, Technology and Economic Growth in the Eighteenth Century, London, 1972, pp. 194–207.
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• Irvine , W. 1805 . Essays, Chiefly on Chemical Subjects xxiv – xxiv . London Thomas Young may also have used the Institution's ice calorimeter, since he had presumably gained some experience of the instrument in 1794, when he was Higgins's assistant.
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• Irvine , W. 1805 . Essays, Chiefly on Chemical Subjects 129 – 131 . London Irvine was perhaps referring to Thomson (see note 15) and to A. F. Fourcroy, who described the ice calorimeter as giving far more reliable results than the method of mixtures (Système des connaissances chimiques, 8vo, Paris, 1800, vol. i, pp. 127–128).
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• Accum , F. 1816 . Descriptive Catalogue of the Apparatus and Instruments Employed in Experimental and Operative Chemistry … Manufactured and Sold by Accum and Garden … 11 – 12 . London
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• Rees , A. 1819 . The Cyclopaedia … Vol. xvii , article ‘Heat’ (unpaginated).
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• 1823 . Encyclopaedia Britannica , 6th ed. Vol. v , 476 – 477 . Edinburgh
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• They may have been made by a tinsmith called Naudin. See Daumas M. Lavoisier, théoricien et expérimentateur Paris 1955 141 142 They are now in the collection of Lavoisier's apparatus preserved in the Musée des Techniques, Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, Paris.
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• Written by Lavoisier in 1793, the account of the joint experiments of 1783–1784 appeared in his posthumous Mémoires de chimie Paris 1803 i 121 147 c. reprinted in Oeuvres de Lavoisier, Paris, 1862, vol. ii, pp. 724–738.
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• Guerlac . Laplace's collaboration with Lavoisier . Actes du XIIe Congrès International d'Histoire des Sciences . Paris. pp. 34 – 34 . 3B (note 2) states that there is no mention of the collaboration in Lavoisier's notebooks after 1784, and this bears out the statement in Lavoisier and Laplace's second memoir (see note 23) that their many occupations made it impossible to continue the work after 1784. However, For draws attention to Lavoisier's statement in the Traité (1789) that they used the calorimeter every winter (R. Fox, The Caloric Theory of Gases from Lavoisier to Regnault, Oxford, 1971, p. 35).
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• 1862 . Oeuvres de Lavoisier Vol. ii , 299 – 299 . Paris
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• 1862 . Oeuvres de Lavoisier Vol. ii , 729 – 729 . Paris
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• 1862 . Oeuvres de Lavoisier Vol. ii , 305 – 305 . Paris
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• Andrews , T. 1848 . Phil. Mag. , 32 : 331 – 331 . W. Ostwald (cited by J. R. Partington, History of Chemistry, London, 1962, vol. iii, p. 429) incorrectly said that Lavoisier and Laplace's result is too low.
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• Seguin , A. 1789 . Ann. Chim. , 3 : 234 – 234 . 1790, 5, 214.
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• Hassenfratz , J.H. 1816 . Encyclopédie Méthodique, Physique Vol. ii , 151 – 160 . Paris (especially p. 155).
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• McKie , D. 1952 . Antoine Lavoisier 321 – 321 . London The equipment was restored to Mme. Lavoisier in August, 1795. (Ibid., p. 324.)
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• Irvine , W. 1805 . Essays, Chiefly on Chemical Subjects xxiv – xxiv . London
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• Bouillon-Lagrange , E.J.B. 1799 . Manuel d'un cours de chimie Vol. i , 25 – 26 . Paris
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• Ségur , O. 1803 . Lettres élémentaires sur la chimie Vol. i , 25 – 25 . Paris
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• Jacotot , P. 1801 . Cours de physique expérimentale et de chimie Vol. i , 128 – 128 . Paris and Dijon 2nd ed., Paris, 1804, vol. i, pp. 103–104 (the second editionis entitled Élémens de …).
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• Clément , N. and Desormes , C.B. 1819 . Détermination expérimentale du zéro absolu de la chaleur et du calorique spécifique des gaz . J. de Physique , 89 : 321 – 346 . and 428–455 (see especially pp. 334–335). This paper was presented to the Institut in September, 1812; it is discussed by R. Fox, op. cit. (note 24), pp. 142–148.
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• Delaroche , F. and Bérard , J.E. 1813 . Mémoire sur la détermination de la chaleur spécifique des différens gaz . Ann. Chim. , 85 : 72 – 110 . 113–182 (especially pp. 75–76, 84–85).
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• Despretz , C. 1824 . Recherches expérimentales sur les causes de la chaleur animale . Ann. Chim. Phys. , 26 : 337 – 364 . (especially p. 344).
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• Dulong , P.L. 1841 . Mémoire sur la chaleur animale . Ann. Chim. Phys. , 1 : 440 – 455 . (read on 2 December, 1822).
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• Thomson , T. 1830 . An Outline of the Sciences of Heat and Electricity 67 – 69 . London and Edinburgh
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• Andrews , T. 1848 . On the heat disengaged during the combination of bodies with oxygen and chlorine . Phil. Mag. , 32 : 321 – 339 . 426–434 (quotation from p. 321).
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• Herschel , J.F.W. 1847 . “ On the temperature acquired by the surface soil under exposure to clear sunshine…. Suggestion of an improvement on the ice calorimeter ” . In Results of Astronomical Observations Made During the Years 1834, 5, 6, 7, 8 at the Cape of Good Hope … 442 – 447 . London in his
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• Bunsen , R. 1870 . Calorimetrische Untersuchungen. I. Das Eiscalorimeter . Ann. Phys. Chem. , 141 : 1 – 31 . trans. by F. Jones, ‘Calorimetric Researches. I. The Ice Calorimeter’, Phil. Mag., 1871, 41, 161–182.
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• Andrews , T. 1871 . Historische Notiz über das Eiscalorimeter . Ann. Phys. Chem. , 142 : 320 – 21 .
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• Bunsen , R. 1871 . Note on calorimetric researches . Phil. Mag. , 41 : 392 – 394 .
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• An air jacket to insulate the apparatus from the surrounding mass of snow was added by Boys C.V. An addition to Bunsen's ice-calorimeter Phil. Mag. 1887 24 214 217
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• For example, the ice calorimeter was used in his study of the specific heat of water by Dieterici C. Über die Flussigkeitswärme des Wassers und das mechanische Wärmeäquivalent Ann. Phys. 1905 16 593 620 He considered the instrument accurate to within 1 or 2 parts in 1000.
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