Nationalism and forgetfulness in the spreading of thermal sciences

Abstract

Abstract This is a review of several key ideas and pioneers in the founding history of thermodynamics, fluid dynamics and heat transfer. Ideas treated in detail are the mechanical equivalent of heat, the difference between heat transfer and work transfer, the Navier-Stokes equations, natural convection in a fluid and a saturated porous medium, the gas bubble rising in a vertical tube filled with liquid, and fluid friction in duct flow. The review shows that good ideas spread and, at the same time the language and national preferences of the followers play a role in whether the idea creators are remembered or forgotten. The forgetting of the origin of ideas and their authors threatens to become a real problem during the digital era. This danger is exacerbated by the enormous increase in the number of publications most of which are not carefully reviewed or read.