In the early 20th century, electricity demand was soaring, and the power industry needed help. Newly designed steam generators and turbines were becoming more complex, yet power engineers lacked accurate data about the most important commodity driving those machines: water. Other engineers stepped in to help. Beginning in 1921, Nathan Osborne, Harold Stimson, and Defoe Ginnings worked at the U.S. National Bureau of Standards to develop ways to quantify the properties of water and steam. The elegant calorimeter shown here measured the heat capacity and vaporization of water at temperatures up to 100 °C. Such data guided the design of steam power equipment into the 1960s.

中文翻译：

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 计算卡路里


20世纪初，电力需求猛增，电力行业需要帮助。新设计的蒸汽发生器和涡轮机变得越来越复杂，但电力工程师缺乏有关驱动这些机器的最重要商品：水的准确数据。其他工程师介入提供帮助。从 1921 年开始，Nathan Osborne、Harold Stimson 和 Defoe Ginnings 在美国国家标准局工作，开发量化水和蒸汽特性的方法。这里展示的优雅量热计可测量水在高达 100 °C 的温度下的热容量和蒸发量。这些数据指导了 20 世纪 60 年代蒸汽动力设备的设计。