The Fundamentals of Thermodynamics

Abstract

When accepting the invitation to give a lecture on the " fundamentals of thermodynamics," I considered myself free to interpret the word " fundamentals " as I liked. I interpret it to mean not a formulation of the subject so abstract that only an expert mathematician can follow it, but to mean on the contrary the foundations or basis for a first introduction to the subject. I will begin by stating my conviction that in a first introduction to thermodynamics no attention whatever should be paid to the historical development of the subject.