THERMODYNAMICS OF IRREVERSIBLE PROCESSES: THE EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION OF THE ONSAGER RECIPROCAL RELATIONS

In the last twenty years a thermodynamic theory of irreversible processes (TIP) has been vigorously developed which has been able to treat irreversible phenomena in a detailed way. The present macroscopic form of the theory was suggested primarily by the statistical mechanical investigations of Onsager. The presently available experimental data are collected for a variety of quite different irreversible phenomena and it is shown that this evidence does indeed verify the Onsager Reciprocal Relations. Thermoelectricity, electro- kinetics, transference in electrolytic solutions, isothermal diffusion, heat diffusion, heat conduction in anisotropic solids, and thermogalvanomagnetic effects are the phenomena considered in detail. (W.D.M.)