Planck organizes thermodynamics around conservation of energy and the directionality expressed by entropy. He applies the framework to gases, mixtures, phase transitions, solutions, and chemical systems while keeping the distinction between empirical laws and microscopic interpretation visible.
Notation has changed, but the architecture remains recognizable in modern courses. The book is especially useful for seeing how thermodynamics became a unified discipline before atomic models were universally accepted.
About this free edition
This catalog record links to Project Gutenberg’s public-domain edition. Historical science books are valuable primary sources, but older claims should be compared with current evidence before being treated as modern scientific guidance.
