RUDOLF JULIUS EMMANUEL CLAUSIUS

(1822-1888)

(Origem:Bild-Archiv des Osterreichischem Nationalbibliotek, Wien; Fotog. da época)

Clausius was born in Koslin, Prussia (now Koszalin, Poland) and was educated at the Stettin Gymnasium and the University of Berlin, and obtaining his doctorate at the University of Halle in 1847. In 1855 he became professor of mathematical physics at the Polytechnicum of Zurich, moving to the University of Wurzburg in 1867 and the University of Bonn in 1869.He remained at Bonn to the end of his life, serving as Rector of the University in his later years. Clausius was not an experimentalist, altough much of his work had significant pratical implications. He carried out research on a variety of topics in theoretical physics, making particularly important contributions to Thermodynamics and to the kinetic theory of gases. His work in Thermodynamics, carried out in the 1850s and 1860s,... his main contributions being to make a detailed analysis of the Carnot cycle and to introduce the concept of entropy. In 1865-1867 he published an important book, Die mechanishe warmetheorie which was later translated into English as The Mechanical Theory of Heat.His work on the kinetic theory of gases was also begun in the 1850s...Perhaps his most important contribution was to introduce the concept of the mean free path. A weakness of this work on kinetic theory was that altough he recognized that there is a distribution of velocities he made no use of Maxwell's distribution equations, dealing only with the average velocities. Also, he never reconigzed that the second law of thermodynamics is a statistical law, believing it to be a consequence of the principles of mechanics. From time to time he became particularly interested in electricity and magnetism and in electrokinetic effects. In 1857 he developed the theory that electrolyte molecules in solution are constantly interchanging, and that the effect of an imposed electromotive force is to influence the interchange...;this has been referred to as the Williamson-Clausius hypothesis, but this does not seem justified as Williamson did not, in fact, consider electrolytes. After 1875 Clausius's main work was on electrodynamic theory, but in this he was not very successful. Clausius was a man of fine character and personality who exerted a wide influence. In the unpleasant controversy with P. G. Tait, who was unnecessarily aggressive, Clausius behaved with exemplary restraint and dignity. He received many honours both at home and abroad.

in "The World of Physical Chemistry" by Keith J. Laidler

Other references to Clausius: Clausius1

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