Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Wilhelm Ostwald’s energetics 3: energetic theory and applications, part II

  • Published:
Foundations of Chemistry Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This is the third of a series of essays on the development and reception of Wilhelm Ostwald’s energetics. The first essay described the chemical origins of Ostwald’s interest in the energy concept and his motivations for seeking a comprehensive science of energy. The second essay and the present one discuss his various attempts, beginning in 1891 and extending over almost 3 years, to develop a consistent and coherent energetic theory. A final essay will consider reactions to this work and Ostwald’s replies, and will also seek to evaluate his program of research. Ostwald’s project—to reconstruct physics and chemistry “as a pure energetics”—is worth attending to for several reasons: first, because Ostwald did ground-breaking work in chemistry (he was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1909 for his studies in catalysis and rates of reaction); second, because an important school of physical chemistry formed around him at Leipzig, a school that promoted his ideas; and, finally, because he was a prominent and vigorous participant in debates at the end of the nineteenth century concerning the proper course of physical theory.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Early formulations of energetic theory are described in Deltete (2005), which focuses on Helm. Helm’s later position is the subject of the introductory essay to Deltete (1999). Summaries of the different evolutions of Helm and Ostwald may be found in Deltete (1996b). A brief introduction to energetics is given in Deltete (2003).

  2. Ostwald (1889, pp. 208, 214, 254, 265, 311; 1891, p. 567; 1892, p. 376; 1893a, pp. 7–8, 11–12, 17–18, 471–472; 1893c, pp. 232–233; 1893d, p. 50; 1895, p. 166).

  3. Ostwald (1891, p. 571; 1892, pp. 367–368; 1893a, pp. 16, 45, 485–488).

  4. Ostwald (1892, p. 368; 1893a, pp. 44, 46–47).

  5. Ostwald (1891, pp. 571–572; 1892, p. 368; 1893a, pp. 43–44). The capacity factor of a given energy is said to be “the amount of energy which, with a given intensity i, is present in a system” (1892, p. 367; also 1893a, pp. 16, 485). Helm’s version of the principle factors the differentials of energies, thus dE = idc. See Helm (1887, pp. 61–62).

  6. See Ostwald (1892, p. 369) for a preliminary table.

  7. “For our purposes, the most important form of spatial energy is that which depends on volume, since this comes into consideration almost exclusively for purposes of thermodynamics and chemical equilibrium” (Ostwald 1893a, p. 30). Other forms of “spatial” energy are “distance” energy and “surface” energy. Later, Ostwald also included “form” energy, which enables a system to maintain its shape or form! (see 1902, pp. 167–168).

  8. Ostwald (1891, p. 566; 1892, p. 369; 1893a, pp. 12–14, 17–18).

  9. Ostwald (1889, pp. 208, 244). Ostwald did not say which specific heat, whether that at constant pressure or constant volume, and apparently did not realize the need for a distinction.

  10. Ostwald (1892, pp. 370, 380–382; 1893a, pp. 484–484). Ostwald (1891, p. 577) recognized only heat capacity.

  11. Ostwald (1892, pp. 370, 382; 1893a, pp. 49–50, 485, 490, 494–496). Also Ostwald to Planck, 12 October 1891 and 29 February 1892; in Ostwald (1961, 348–349). Ostwald frequently confused specific heats (and heat capacities) with entropy, whose presence in thermodynamics he neither welcomed nor understood.

  12. Planck to Ostwald, 20 March 1892, 22 April 1892, and 25 June 1893; in Ostwald (1961, pp. 41–45): Helm to Ostwald, 4 June 1893; in Ostwald (1961, pp. 76–77). Also Planck (1896, pp. 73–75).

  13. Ostwald (1892, pp. 367–368, 371–376, 380; 1893a, pp. 485–490). Also the important exchange of letters between Ostwald and Planck, to be discussed in the next essay, in June and July 1893 (Ostwald 1961, pp. 46–59). Ostwald conceded that, in general, the absolute amount of energy of a given form in a system cannot be determined experimentally, but he spent a good deal of effort trying to solve the problem for particular cases.

  14. There are no single-form energy systems, since such systems would have no boundaries (Ostwald 1892, p. 377; 1893a, pp. 24–25, 28, 32–33, 46–48).

  15. Ostwald (1891, p. 571; 1892, pp. 367–368; 1893a, p. 46). Compare Helm (1887, pp. 53, 55, 58–59, 61–62).

  16. Ostwald (1893a, pp. 25–27, 34–36, 47–48, 512–514). Ostwald changed his mind several times about the conditions that must be satisfied for a state of equilibrium to obtain.

  17. Ostwald (1892, pp. 377–378; 1893a, pp. 24–25, 28).

  18. Ostwald (1893a, pp. 31–36, 46–49). In one place the Gesetz des Geschehens is said to be “the most general natural law known to science” (1893a, p. 48).

  19. See Ostwald (1889, pp. 244–252; 1893a, pp. 12, 484–486; 1893c, pp. 232–233).

  20. Ostwald (1889, p. 245; 1893a, pp. 45–46, 477–478, 492–493).

  21. Ostwald (1893a, pp. 484–494, esp. 490–494; also 1892, pp. 380–382). Ostwald recognized that this equation holds only for reversible processes (1893a, pp. 482, 484), but he seldom mentioned irreversibility—even in discussions of entropy, where it would have been appropriate (see 1893a, pp. 482–484, 494–497).

  22. Ostwald to Arrhenius, 11 June 1892; in Ostwald (1969, p. 110); Ostwald to Boltzmann, 2 June 1892; in Ostwald (1961, pp. 9–10).

  23. Ostwald (1892, p. 382; 1893a, pp. 498–499). Or, at least, c should have been the heat capacity. All of Ostwald’s theoretical remarks on the factorization of heat energy explicitly state that heat capacity is its capacity factor for variable temperature. In practice, however, he used entropy, as in Eq. 7, presumably so that he could obtain relations, such as the Clausius-Clapeyron equation, that he already knew to be correct.

  24. See Ostwald (1892, pp. 383–386; 1893a, pp. 1006–1022). The present section is based on these two sources.

  25. Ostwald’s phrase is “willkürliche (arbitrary) Beziehungen”.

  26. Ostwald (1892, pp. 370–371). Ostwald conceded that heat and radiant energy were closely related, but he insisted that they were distinct forms of energy (see, also, 1893a, p. 1008). His reasons for thinking this are unclear, but he perhaps thought that while heat could, under certain conditions, exist in natural couplings, or be coupled by a machine to other forms of energy, that was not the case with radiant energy. Ostwald almost always used heat to illustrate the behavior of radiant energy, but, significantly, his examples were then spontaneous heat conduction and spontaneous thermal radiation where, presumably, heat is no longer coupled to any other energy (see 1892, p. 384 and 1893a, pp. 1018–1019).

  27. See the correspondence between Planck and Ostwald in Ostwald (1961, pp. 38–45; 1969, pp. 348–349).

  28. See the correspondence between Planck and Ostwald in Ostwald (1961, pp. 46–49).

  29. Ostwald (1926, vol. 2, pp. 168–170). This section of Ostwald’s Lebenslinien is entitled “Wesen der Energetik” (see also Ostwald 1896).

  30. See Ostwald (1893a, pp. 30–33).

  31. Ostwald later told Helm that he had not written further “energetic essays” because his time was consumed by other matters. Ostwald to Helm, 2 October 1894, in Ostwald (1969, p. 351).

  32. Ostwald rev. of W. C. Wittwer, Grundzüge der Molekular-physik und der mathematischen Chemie, in ZpC 11. For similar remarks on the aether, see ZpC 18 (1895, p. 525).

  33. Ostwald, ZpC 16 (1895, p. 191).

  34. See Ostwald, ZpC 13 (1894, pp. 128–132, 380, 381–382); ZpC 14 (1894, pp. 184, 380–381, 712); ZpC 15 (1894, pp. 516–517, 700); ZpC 16 (1895, pp. 170, 175–176, 190); ZpC 17 (1895, pp. 758–759); ZpC 18 (1895, p. 186).

    To my knowledge, no other publication reviewed energetic literature as frequently as did Ostwald’s Zeitschrift. But Ostwald’s reviews can—and perhaps did—create a mistaken impression: that energetics was far more widespread and influential than it in fact turned out to be. Ostwald likely tried to create that impression, believing that if energetics were given the publicity it deserved, then scientists would soon be convinced of its value, just as they had been of the value of the theories of Arrhenius and van’t Hoff.

  35. Ostwald rev. of J. E. Trevor, “Die Grundlagen der chemischen Theorie,” in ZpC 14 (1894, p. 184).

  36. Ostwald rev. of J. E. Trevor, “Die Fortschritte und Aussichten der physikalischen Chemie, in ZpC 16 (1895, p. 170).

  37. Ostwald rev. of G. Helm, “Überblick über der derzeitigen Zustand der Energetik,” in ZpC 18 (1895, p. 186).

  38. For evidence of this tendency, see (besides the passages cited in the text) Ostwald, ZpC 11; ZpC 14 (1894, pp. 379–380); and ZpC 18 (1895, pp. 189–190).

  39. Ostwald rev. of P. Duhem, Kommentar zu den Prinzipien der Thermodynamik, in ZpC 11.

  40. Ostwald rev. of W. Nernst, Theoretische Chemie vom Standpunkte der Avogadroschen Regel und der Thermodynamik, in ZpC 11.

  41. Ostwald rev. of W. Voigt, Kompendium der theoretischen Physik. I. Band: Mechanik starrer und nichtstarrer Körper. Wärmelehre, in ZpC 15 (1894, pp. 523–524). Ostwald qualified his praise for the first volume of Voigt’s Kompendium, however, by adding that the only thing one could be sure of about such “mechanical analogies” was that sooner or later they would lead one astray and would have to be given up.

  42. Ostwald rev. of P. Duhem, Kommentar zu den Prinzipien der Thermodynamikin ZpC 16 (1895, pp. 570–571).

  43. Ostwald, ZpC 17 (1895, pp. 758–759).

  44. Ostwald rev. of E. von Lommel, Lehrbuch der Experimentalphysik, in ZpC 11.

  45. See, for example, Ostwald’s review of J. B. Stallo’s Concepts and Theories of Modern Physics, in ZpC 18 (1895, pp. 689–690).

  46. Ostwald rev. of A. Korn, Eine Theorie der Gravitation und der elektrischen Erscheinungen auf Grundlage der Hydrodynamik, in ZpC 14 (1894, pp. 574–575).

  47. Ostwald rev. of P. Walden, Handbuch der Stereochemie, in ZpC 12.

  48. Ostwald rev. of E. von Meyer, Geschichte der Chemie von den ältesten Zeiten bis zum Gegenwart. Zugleich Einführung in das Studium Chemie, in ZpC 15 (1894, p. 527).

  49. Ostwald rev. of G. Helm, Grundzüge der mathematischen Chemie. Energetik der chemischen Erscheinungen, in ZpC 18 (1895, p. 186).

  50. Ostwald rev. of O. E. Meyer, Die kinetischen Theorie der Gase. 2. Aufl., in ZpC 15 (1894, pp. 527–528).

  51. Ostwald rev. of B. Weinstein, Über die Zustandsgleichung der Körper und die absolut Temperatur,” in ZpC 17 (1895, pp. 382–383).

  52. Ostwald rev. of W. Ramsden, “Die Koagulierung der Eiweisskörper auf mechanischen Wege,” in ZpC 15 (1894, pp. 703–704).

  53. Ostwald (1893b). Discussed by Helm in his (1898, pp. 245–252).

  54. Ostwald was never very clear about what he meant when he spoke of “possible changes.” Boltzmann, for example, raised an objection to the Maximumprinzip based on the possible motion of a mechanical system. Ostwald’s reply was to say that the motion imagined by Boltzmann was not among the possible ones. Boltzmann to Ostwald, 26 July 1892, and Ostwald to Boltzmann, 27 July 1892, in Ostwald (1961, pp. 13–17). Körber thinks that Ostwald restricted the sense of “possible motion” to the motion that actually occurs (see Ostwald 1961, 17 note). I do not think that this was Ostwald’s intent, but his insecure grasp of variational principles renders it uncertain what was.

  55. See Karl Neumann to Ostwald, 3 March 1892, Emil Budde to Ostwald, 14 April 1892, and Boltzmann to Ostwald, 26 July 1892, in Ostwald (1961, pp. 111, 116, 13–16).

  56. Reflecting on his student years, Ostwald later admitted that his mathematical training had been insufficient to grapple with the problems in physical chemistry to which he would soon turn his attention. He had been introduced to the infinitesimal calculus at Dorpat, but only appreciated its importance later on. Like Einstein, he seems to have studied mathematics only because he had to, preferring instead to work in the laboratory. Like Einstein, too, he regretted in later years not having obtained a better grounding in the subject. Studies in chemical thermodynamics at Leipzig convinced Ostwald that he needed a better working knowledge of the calculus. “Yet even later on,” he wrote, “I never went very far into higher mathematics, and repeated attacks [on my work] soon informed me that my limits were rather narrowly drawn” (Ostwald 1926, vol. 1, p. 176; also vol. 2, pp. 113–114).

  57. See Ostwald to Planck, 2 July 1893, in Ostwald (1961, pp. 51–52); Ostwald to Arrhenius, 7 November 1892 and 17 March 1893, in Ostwald (1969, pp. 113–114, 119); and Ostwald (1926, vol. 2, pp. 166–167).

  58. Ostwald included Gibbs among the “unconscious” proponents of energetics (see, e.g., 1891, p. 571; 1893a, p. 45; 1902, pp. 165–166). I argue that this is mistaken in Deltete (1996a, b).

  59. Ostwald (1893c, p. 234). See also (1893d, p. 51; 1892, p. 370; 1893a, p. 210). For brief descriptions of Gibbs’s use of chemical potentials, see Deltete (1996b, 2000).

  60. See, e.g., Ostwald (1892, p. 370; 1893a, pp. 501–503, 510; 1893c, p. 234).

  61. See, e.g., Ostwald (1893a, pp. 52, 504–505, 511–512; 1893d, p. 50).

  62. See Ostwald (1893a, pp. 500, 503–507, 512–517; 1893c, pp. 224–228; 1893d, pp. 51–52).

  63. Ostwald (1893d, p. 50). See also (1892, p. 370; 1893a, pp. 49–50).

  64. Ostwald (1893a, p. 507; 1893c, p. 425; 1893d, p. 53).

  65. Ostwald (1893a, p. 514). From everything that he says elsewhere about compensated intensities, I would have thought that Ostwald would emphasize the activity, not the passivity, of such relationships. Two compensating intensities are, after all, oppositely directed tendencies (like forces), each of which balances the other by holding it in check, by actively resisting its natural inclination to behave in accordance with the intensity law. Ostwald is perhaps encouraged to think that compensation relations are passive resistances by his own mechanical analogy: the raised pan may seem only passively to resist the fall of the sphere. But I think that such an interpretation departs from (at least) his official view of what is going on. Specifically, according to the Composition Thesis, the cluster of energies making up the pan must, it seems, be actively resisting the cluster that makes up the sphere, preventing it from undergoing an energetic change it would otherwise naturally undergo.

  66. Ostwald (1893c, p. 427). See also (1893a, pp. 515–516).

  67. Ostwald ZpC 15 (1894, p. 706).

  68. Ostwald (1893a, pp. 516–517; 1893c, p. 428; 1893d, p. 53).

  69. Ostwald ZpC 15 (1894, pp. 705–706).

References

  • Boltzmann, L.: Ein Wort der Mathematik an die Energetik. Ann. Phys. 57, 39–71 (1896)

    Google Scholar 

  • Deltete, R.: Gibbs and Ostwald: a contrast in scientific style. J. Chem. Educ. 73, 289–295 (1996a)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deltete, R.: Gibbs and the energeticists. In: Kox, A.J., Siegel, D. (eds.) No Truth Except in the Details: Essays in Honor of Martin J. Klein, pp. 135–169. Kluwer, Dordrecht (1996b)

    Google Scholar 

  • Deltete, R.: The Historical Development of Energetics. Die geschichtlichen Entwicklung der Energetik (trans. Helm, G., Veit & Comp., Leipzig, 1898). Kluwer, Dordrecht (1999)

  • Deltete, R.: Gibbs, Josiah Willard. In: The MacMillan Encyclopedia of Energy, pp. 579–581. New York, USA (2000)

  • Deltete, R.: Energetics. In: Heilbron, J.L. (ed.) The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science, pp. 256–257. Oxford University Press, New York (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  • Deltete, R.: Die Lehre von der Energie: Georg Helm’s Energetic Manifesto. Centaurus 47, 140–162 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deltete, R.: Wilhelm Ostwald’s energetics 1: origins and motivations. Found. Chem. 9, 3–56 (2007a)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deltete, R.: Wilhelm Ostwald’s energetics 2: energetic theory and applications, part I. Found. Chem. 9, 265–316 (2007b)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Helm, G.: Die Lehre von der Energie, historisch-kritisch entwickelt. Nebst Beiträgen zu einer allgemeinen Energetik. A. Felix, Leipzig (1887)

    Google Scholar 

  • Helm, G.: Die Energetik nach ihrer geschichtlichen Entwicklung. Veit & Comp., Leipzig (1898)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hertz, H.: In: Lenard, P. (ed.) Die Prinzipien der Mechanik in neuem Zusammenhang dargestellt. J. A. Barth, Leipzig (1894)

  • Kuhn, T.: Black Body Radiation and the Quantum Discontinuity, 1894–1912. Oxford University Press, New York (1978)

    Google Scholar 

  • Lie, S.: Bemerkungen zu Ostwalds Prinzip des ausgezeichneten Falles. Berichte über die Verhandlungen der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig 46, 135–137 (1894)

    Google Scholar 

  • Neumann, K.: Das Ostwald’sche Axiome. Berichte über die Verhandlungen der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig 44, 184–187 (1892c)

    Google Scholar 

  • Ostwald, W.: Grundriss der allgemeinen Chemie. W. Englemann, Leipzig (1889)

    Google Scholar 

  • Ostwald, W.: Studien zur Energetik I. Berichte über die Verhandlungen der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig 43, 271–288 (1891). Rpt. in Zeitschrift für physikalische Chemie 9, 563–578 (1892)

  • Ostwald, W.: Studien zur Energetik II. Grundlinien in der allgemeinen Energetik. Berichte über die Verhandlungen der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig 44, 211–237 (1892). Rpt. in Zeitschrift für physikalische Chemie 10, 363–386 (1892)

  • Ostwald, W.: Lehrbuch der allgemeinen Chemie. Zweite ungearbeite Auflage. II. Band, I. Teil: Chemische Energie. W. Engelmann, Leipzig (1893a). Preface dated 13 January

    Google Scholar 

  • Ostwald, W.: Über das Prinzip des ausgezeichneten Falles. Berichte über die Verhandlungen der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig 45, 599–603 (1893b)

    Google Scholar 

  • Ostwald, W.: On chemical energy. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 15, 231–238 (1893c). Presented to the World Congress of Chemist on 26 August

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ostwald, W.: Über Chemische Energie. Verhandlungen der Gesellschaft deutscher Naturforscher und Ärzte II 1, 49–55 (1893d)

    Google Scholar 

  • Ostwald, W.: Über das Prinzip des ausgezeichneten Falles. Berichte über die Verhandlungen der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig 46, 276–278 (1894)

    Google Scholar 

  • Ostwald, W.: Die Überwindung des wissenschaftlichen Materialismus. Verhandlungen der Gesellschaft deutscher Naturforscher und Ärzte, I. Teil, pp. 155–168 (1895). Rpt. in Zeitschrift für physikalische Chemie 18, 305–320 (1895). Rpt. in Ostwald (1904), pp. 220–240

  • Ostwald, W.: Zur Energetik. Ann. Phys. 58, 154–167 (1896)

    Google Scholar 

  • Ostwald, W.: Vorlesungen über Naturphilosophie, gehalten im sommer 1901 an der Universität Leipzig. Veit & Comp., Leipzig (1902)

    Google Scholar 

  • Ostwald, W.: Abhandlungen und Vorträge allgemeinen Inhaltes (1887–1903). Veit & Comp., Leipzig (1904)

    Google Scholar 

  • Ostwald, W.: Lebenslinien: Eine Selbstbiographie, 3 vols. Klassing & Co., Berlin (1926–1927). Cited as Ostwald (1926), followed by volume number

  • Ostwald, W.: In: Körber, H.-G. (eds.) Aus dem wissenschaftlichen Briefwechsel Wilhelm Ostwalds, I. Teil: Briefwechsel mit Ludwig Boltzmann, Max Planck, Georg Helm und Josiah Willard Gibbs. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin (1961)

  • Ostwald, W.: In: Körber, H.-G. (eds.) Aus dem wissenschaftlichen Briefwechsel Wilhelm Ostwalds, II. Teil: Briefwechsel mit Svante Arrhenius und Jacobus Hendricus van‘t Hoff. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin (1969)

  • Planck, M.: Gegen die neuere Energetik. Ann. Phys. 57, 72–78 (1896)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, Seattle University, 901 12th Avenue, Seattle, WA, 98122-1090, USA

    Robert J. Deltete

Authors
  1. Robert J. Deltete
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Robert J. Deltete.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Deltete, R.J. Wilhelm Ostwald’s energetics 3: energetic theory and applications, part II. Found Chem 10, 187–221 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10698-008-9053-6

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10698-008-9053-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation