Joseph Black, Scotch Whiskey and Thermodynamics

I was impressed recently to learn the Combination of Rothes Distillers, Ltd. is planning to build a 7.2 megawatt power generating facility that will use the distillery waste as a fuel. This may seem innovative,, but they are merely keeping up a long standing Scotch tradition for frugality. In fact, if it wasn’t for Scotch Whiskey and frugal Scotsmen, we might not have discovered an important thermodynamic property.

Pour yourself a wee dram and learn about Joseph Black.

Joseph Black was a Scottish physician and chemist. He was a contemporary and friend of James Watt. He went to medical school in Glasgow and Edinburgh. He is known for several scientific discoveries including the fact that carbon dioxide can kill you and that phase transformations take place at constant temperature regardless of heat input. But, on to the Scotch bit.

It seems some local distillers, being frugal Scotsmen, wanted to know the minimum amount of fuel needed to distill whiskey. From his experiments, he discovered the thermodynamic property of Specific Heat. This property has caused dismay to engineering students ever since.

Now you know what engineering owes to the art of distilling whiskey. So the next time you lift a glass of Scotland’s Finest, remember Joseph Black, the frugal distillers and how they advanced the science of thermodynamics.