Caloric Quotes (4 quotes)
At present, light is generally regarded as the result of a vibratory movement of the ethereal fluid. Light produces heat, or at least accompanies the radiating heat, and moves with the same velocity as heat. Radiating heat is then a vibratory movement. It would be ridiculous to suppose that it is an emission of matter while the light which accompanies it could be only a movement.
Could a motion (that of radiating heat) produce matter (caloric)?
No, undoubtedly; it can only produce a motion. Heat is then the result of a motion.
Could a motion (that of radiating heat) produce matter (caloric)?
No, undoubtedly; it can only produce a motion. Heat is then the result of a motion.
From Appendix A, 'Extracts From the Unpublished Writings of Carnot', Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat (1890, 2nd ed. 1897), 222.
The production of motion in steam-engines is always accompanied by a circumstance on which we should fix our attention. This circumstance is the re-establishing of equilibrium in the caloric; that is, its passage from a body in which the temperature is more or less elevated, to another in which it is lower.
As translated in Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat and on Machines Fitted to Develop Power (1890, Rev. 1897), 44-45. Edited by R. H. Thurston, from the original French, Réflexions sur la Puissance Motrice du Feu (1824).
We are led to establish this proposition. The driving power of heat is independent of the agents used to realize it; its value is uniquely fixed by the temperatures of the bodies between which the transfer of caloric is made.
As translated in Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat and on Machines Fitted to Develop Power (1890, Rev. 1897), 68. Edited by R. H. Thurston, from the original French, Réflexions sur la Puissance Motrice du Feu (1824).
When a hypothesis no longer suffices to explain phenomena, it should be abandoned. This is the case with the hypothesis which regards caloric as matter, as a subtile fluid.
From Appendix A, 'Extracts From the Unpublished Writings of Carnot', Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat (1890, 2nd ed. 1897), 219.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
