Heat has always been something we thought we understood. From baking bread to running engines, the idea seemed simple: heat spreads out smoothly, like water soaking through a sponge. That simple ...

AT the last soirée of the Royal Society, a beautiful experiment was shown by Mr. Shelford Bidwell, illustrative of the fact that nickel ceases to be magnetic at a certain definite temperature. A piece ...

The engine works by taking heat from the hot reservoir, converting some of it into useful work, and rejecting the remaining heat to the cold reservoir. The thermodynamic cycle followed by the engine ...

MR. FREDERICK SMITH described in NATURE of January 28 (p. 294) a simple heating machine, which he constructed with a nickel disk, so that when heated before a magnet it began to revolve. A similar ...

If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in ...