The double transfer of thermodynamics: From physics to chemistry and from Europe to America

The aim of this study is twofold: to explore, first, the influence of the intellectual and social conditions on the transfer of thermodynamics to chemistry and thereby the making of chemical thermodynamics, and second, the way that this knowledge was transferred from Europe to America. Consequently, it is of interest to examine the methodological approaches used by physicists and chemists to transfer thermodynamics to chemistry, to evaluate the potential of this science to offer solutions to existing chemical problems, and to discuss the attitude of the scientific community towards these new ideas. The development of chemical thermodynamics in America followed a different route compared to the European experience. Although it was transferred from Europe, it had distinctive characteristics imposed by a different traditional, intellectual and social milieu. This study focuses on the content of the transferred knowledge to America and the direction that this knowledge assumed by the American scientists. As a paradigm, the chemical thermodynamics of Gilbert Newton Lewis will be considered.