His propositions are:
1. The motive power of heat is independent of the agents employed to
develop it, and its quantity is determined solely by the temperature
of the bodies between which the final transfer of caloric takes place.
2. The temperature of the agent must in the first instance be raised
to the highest degree possible in order to obtain a great fall of
caloric, and as a consequence a large production of motive power.
3. For the same reason the cooling of the agent must be carried to as
low a degree as possible.
4. Matters must be so arranged that the passage of the elastic agent
from the higher to the lower temperature must be due to an increase of
volume, that is to say, the cooling of the agent must be caused by its
rarefaction.
This last proposition indicates the defective information which Carnot
possessed. He knew that expansion of the elastic agent was accompanied
by a fall of temperature, but he did not know that that fall was due
to the conversion of heat into work. We should state this clause more
correctly by saying that "the cooling of the agent must be caused by
the external work it performs." In accordance with these propositions,
it is immaterial what the heated gases or vapors in the furnace of a
boiler may be, provided that they cool by doing external work and, in
passing over the boiler surfaces, impart their heat energy to the
water.
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