7th ESHS Conference Prague 2016

Prague, Czech Republic, 22–24 September, 2016
Between a simultaneous discovery and construction: historical views on the emergence of
energy conservation (ID 553)
Shaul Katzir (Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel)
At least 13 individuals were identified as contributors to or anticipators of the principle of energy
conservation. Historians, however, expressed diverse opinions about the relations between the contributions
of these individuals, the energy principle and its historical emergence. This divergence followed
different understanding of energy conservation and different requirements for regarding a scientist as
a promoter of the principle (e.g. whether one expressed, believed in or applied the principle). Thus,
while a few historians (e.g. T. Kuhn) regard energy conservation as a case of simultaneous discovery,
others (e.g. C. Smith) regard it as a gradual construction to which the various contributions were
retrospectively connected. Historians’ views of the factors that led to the principle at the mid-nineteenth
century diverge accordingly.
Historical studies in the last half a century significantly revised our views of individual contributors and
of major developments in the history of related sciences, but no unified picture has been suggested.
This talk will build on these studies to suggest a current comparative survey of the ‘pioneers,’ the
differences and similarities in their contributions and the factors that led them to their findings. The
new picture will be use to revisit the question of whether and in which sense one can speak of simultaneous
discovery of energy conservation and the different causes that led different scientists to similar
conclusions independently of each other.
Keywords: Energy conservation, Helmholtz, William Thomson, historiography, steam engine, animal
heat, respiration, dynamic theory of heat
References:
Thomas S. Kuhn, "Energy conservation as an example of simultaneous discovery," in The essential
tension: Selected studies in scientific tradition and change, (Chicago: Chicago University press, 1977),
66–104.
Crosbie Smith, The Science of Energy: A Cultural History of Energy Physics in Victorian Britain, (Chicago,
1998)
Energy and Montgolfières: Europe in a balloon (ID 534)
Arnaud Mayrargue (CNRS / SPHERE, Paris, France)
The flying machines designed and constructed at the end of the 18 th century by Etienne de Montgolfier
(1745–1799) and his brother Joseph de Montgolfier (1740–1810), aroused considerable enthusiasm
and generated a great many utopian projects in the literature and the arts. They also gave rise to a
major new fashion in France, and more especially in England, known as balloonomania.
A vast amount of scientific and technical research took place prior to the invention of these engines
viewed as « materialized theory » 1 . This research was undertaken in particular both by Antoine Laurent
de Lavoisier (1743–1794), and by Joseph Black (1728–1799). So, the successful development of the
hot-air balloon, a machine propelled by brazier-heated air, required careful research into the very
concept of heat and more generally of energy.
Many balloons were constructed, first in France, then in England, and these were later flown in several
European countries, including Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Poland.
Far from being an exclusively French invention, only pioneered by the Montgolfier brothers Charles
and Robert, the balloon therefore had more complex origins, reaching well beyond France’s borders.
Subsequent developments were only made possible by collaboration and competition, not only in
France, but also in England, and later in other countries, too.
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