Page:Scientific Memoirs, Vol. 1 (1837).djvu/370

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358
M. CLAPEYRON ON THE MOTIVE POWER OF HEAT.

but the temperature remaining constant during the variation of the volume, we have


and consequently



If we divide the effect produced by this value of , we shall have


for the expression of the maximum effect which can be developed by the passage of a quantity of heat equal to unity, from a body maintained at the temperature to a body maintained at the temperature .

We have shown that this quantity of action developed is independent of the agent which has served to transmit the heat; it is therefore the same for all the gases, and is equally independent of the ponderable quantity of the body employed: but there is nothing that proves it to be independent of the temperature; ought therefore to be equal to an unknown function of , which is the same for all the gases.

Now by the equation , is itself the function of the product ; the partial differential equation is therefore


having for its integral



No change is effected in the generality of this formula by substituting for these two arbitrary functions of the product , the functions and of the temperature, multiplied by the coefficient ; we shall thus have



That this value of satisfies all the conditions to which it is subject may be easily verified; in fact we have