Richard Mollier (; 30 November 1863,

Triest Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into provi ...

– 13 March 1935,

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

) was a German professor of

Applied Physics Applied physics is the application of physics to solve scientific or engineering problems. It is usually considered to be a bridge or a connection between physics and engineering. "Applied" is distinguished from "pure" by a subtle combination ...

and Mechanics in

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

and

, a pioneer of experimental research in thermodynamics, particularly for water, steam, and moist air. Mollier diagrams ( enthalpy-entropy charts) are routinely used by engineers in the design work associated with power plants (fossil or nuclear), compressors, steam turbines, refrigeration systems, and air conditioning equipment to visualize the working cycles of thermodynamic systems. The Mollier diagram ( ''h''–''s'' chart) of

enthalpy Enthalpy , a property of a thermodynamic system, is the sum of the system's internal energy and the product of its pressure and volume. It is a state function used in many measurements in chemical, biological, and physical systems at a constant ...

of moist air versus its water vapor content (''h''–''x'' diagram) is equivalent to the

Psychrometrics Psychrometrics (or psychrometry, ; also called hygrometry) is the field of engineering concerned with the physical and thermodynamic properties of gas-vapor mixtures. Common applications Although the principles of psychrometry apply to any ph ...

Chart commonly used in the USA and Britain.

Education and career

After attending '' Gymnasium'' (grammar school) in Triest, he commenced studies in mathematics and physics at the University of

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popul ...

(Austria), continuing at the

Technical University of Munich The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; german: Technische Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences. Establis ...

. He presented his first publications as an outside lecturer for Theoretical Mechanics. After a short stint in Göttingen, he succeeded

Gustav Zeuner Gustav Anton Zeuner (30 November 1828 – 17 October 1907) was a German physicist, engineer and epistemologist, considered the founder of technical thermodynamics and of the Dresden School of Thermodynamics. Life University and Revolutio ...

in 1897 as Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Technischen Hochschule Dresden. His 1904 publication ''New Graphs for Technical Thermodynamics'' greatly simplified calculations involving thermodynamic processes. His ''New Tables and Diagrams for Water Vapor'', first published in 1906, appeared in six further editions through 1932, as he updated it to reflect new developments.

Honors

At the 1923 Thermodynamics Conference held in Los Angeles, it was decided to name, in his honor, as a “Mollier graph” any thermodynamic diagram using the

Enthalpy Enthalpy , a property of a thermodynamic system, is the sum of the system's internal energy and the product of its pressure and volume. It is a state function used in many measurements in chemical, biological, and physical systems at a constant ...

''h'' as one of its axes. Example: the ''h''–''s'' graph for steam or the ''h''–''x'' graph for moist air.

Publications

*''Die Entropie der Wärme'' (The Entropy of Heat) 1895 *''Dampftafeln und Diagramme des Kohlendioxid'' (Vapor Tables and Diagrams for Carbon Dioxide) 1896 *''Neue Diagramme zur Technischen Wärmelehre'' (New Graphs for Technical Thermodynamics) 1904 *''Neue Tabellen und Diagramme für Wasserdampf '' (New Tables and Diagrams for Water Vapor) Berlin 1906

External links

mollierdiagram.com digital version of Mollier DiagramPublications by and about Richard MollierPhoto
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mollier, Richard German mechanical engineers 19th-century German physicists Technical University of Munich alumni 1863 births 1935 deaths 20th-century German physicists Thermodynamicists

Education and career

Honors

Publications

See also

External links