Turner's painting of the opening of a railroad and bridge in 1844 is an allegory of thermodynamics: Turner showed the train as partially invisible/blurry because it was traveling at 30 mph (extraordinarily fast for the time), and importantly showed the interior of the steam engine (the thermodynamics), making visible the mechanism that machines work by and introducing the visual representation of thermodynamic principles.
causalpending
Speaker
David KrakowEvidence Quote
“he made the train partially invisible in blurry because it was traveling so fast 30 m an hour in Santa Fe if someone's traveling at 30 m an hour they're not moving that's not what I believe but it's what people behind me believe uh the other thing he did is he showed the interior of the steam engine this is not possible right he's showing the thermodynamics of steam and you could call this painting if I were to title it I would have called it an allegory of thermodynamics”
Created: 8/10/2026, 10:52:22 PM
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