This book explores the human understanding of heat, from early cultural perceptions to the scientific developments that shaped thermal science. Beginning with historical musings on heat, it traces the evolution of scientific thought from 16th-century Italy to the quantum understanding of heat in the 20th century. The book examines how humans have perceived, measured, and produced heat, leading to a unified concept that has remained constant: "heat flows from a hot body to a cold body''. It serves as an excellent resource for chemists and anyone interested in the history of chemistry and science.

Autorentext

Gary D. Patterson is Professor of Chemistry Emeritus at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA USA. He received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry in 1972 from Stanford University. During his academic career he published more than 100 articles in the chemical physics of amorphous systems, especially polymers. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the Royal Society of Chemistry. He taught theoretical chemistry to students of chemistry and chemical engineering, especially Thermodynamics and Transport. He is the author of Physical Chemistry of Macromolecules (2007).

Patterson is the Historian of the Division of the History of Chemistry of the American Chemical Society. He has published three previous books with Springer: A Prehistory of Polymer Science (2012), Polymer Science from 1935-1953: Consolidating the Paradigm (2014), and Chemistry in 17th Century New England (2020). He is the author of Paul John Flory: A Life of Science and Friends (2016). He has edited three books based on HIST symposia: Characters in Chemistry: A Celebration of the Humanity of Chemistry (2013), Preceptors in Chemistry (2018), and Modern Applications of Flory's "Statistical Mechanics of Chain Molecules" (2020). Patterson has also been associated with the Science History Institute as the Charles Price Fellow (2004), the Chief Bibliophile of the Bolton Society, Chair of the Heritage Council, and member of the Board of Directors.